102 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Chap. I. 



" It is said that the best stock of horses in the New England States are 

 found iwnong the progeny and descendants of the Sherman Morgan, wliich 

 was owned by Mr. Bellows, ^>f Verniont. 



" The iigiire given on another page is a portrait of Black Hawk, ' a colt 

 of the Sherman Morgan, which was got by the old Justin Morgan horse. 

 The dam of Black Hawk was a three-quarter-blooded English marc, raised 

 in the province of iS'ew Brunswick. She could trot a mile in less than three 

 minutes, and weighed 1,025 lbs., and was in every respect a most perfect 

 animal.' 



" Black Hawk Avas bred by Mr. Matthews, of Durham, N. H. He is a 

 jet-black color; weighs, in good flesh, 1,010 lbs. ; his hight is flfteen hands 

 and one inch. A line drawn from the hip even with the ham, just below 

 the setting on of the tail, is four inches longer than the back, or the distance 

 from the hip to the withers. A line dropped perpendicular from the neck, 

 parallel with the fore leg, is nineteen inches forward of the junction of the 

 withers. The distance between the hip and the ribs is only one and a half 

 inches. He has a broad and vigorous arm, fat and clean leg, large nniscles, 

 short from the knee to the jjastern, large windpipe and nostril, well open 

 when under motion. He is one of the best proportioned and most elegant 

 moving horses that can be produced. He is perfectly sound, a close-jointed, 

 clean-limbed animal, and curries a beautiful Avaving head, mane, and tail. 

 His legs are flat and hard, clean from long hairs on the fetlock ; his eyes 

 stand out prominent ; his disposition kind and playful. He kee])s fat with 

 very little feed of oats and bran, three rpiarts of each daily, and five or six 

 pounds of timothy each day. 



" No fault can he found with the horse, unless it be in his size ; however, 

 his stock are sufficiently large for roadsters and for general usefulness in 

 this State." 



137. The Faults of the Morgan Horse. — Of the Morgan horses as they 

 were at the time Mr. Jewett wrote, particularly the Black Hawk strain of 

 the blood, we have no fault to find — we rather indorse his statement. But 

 fifteen years have wrought a change. As a general thing, Morgan horses 

 have been lired too much in-and-in, and without regard to size. They are 

 no longer " lofty" in proportion to the weight, but, on the contrary, are 

 " squatty," and to the eye of a good judge of horses, far less attractive than 

 they were formerly. What is needed, is an infusion of blood of a taller race 

 —such as gave character to the Black Hawks. Wherever they have been 

 crossed with Messenger stock, Cleveland Bay, or others of similar form, the 

 improvement has been marked, and some of the very finest roadsters and 

 carriage-horses have resulted. The Morgans, crossed upon other good 

 breeds, do not improve those as much as it improves theirs. It is still a 

 favorite breed of horses in New England, but not as much so as it was some 

 years ago. Tlie uniform color of the family has been a great recommenda- 

 tion, and there has been also a greater degree of general beauty in the Mor- 

 gan family of horses than in any other ever extensively bred in this country. 



