THE TROTTING-HORSE OF AMERICA. 219 



an early age, so overdraws upon the constitution, and makes 

 sucli inroads upon the legs while they are supple and grow- 

 ing, that the horse is often practically ruined before he is a 

 horse at all. For those who raise colts to sell, it is a profit- 

 able system ; it being for their interest to get them taken 

 off at three, rather than at five or six years old : but next 

 to nobody wants a trotting-colt merely because he can go 

 very fast at three years old. If there is not a good chance 

 for future improvement, and promise of reasonable duration 

 upon the turf or road, the colt is really worth but little. I 

 am satisfied that this improvement and duration are not 

 half as likely to follow in the case of one who has been 

 forced by high feed and trained early, as in that of one who 

 has been treated more according to the order of nature. 



Expedition in such matter is commonly compensated for 

 at the expense of the purchaser. I can remember when it 

 took three times as long to tan a hide of sole-leather as it 

 does now. The increased rapidity of the process is no doubt 

 a gain to the tanner, and also to the manufacturing shoe- 

 maker ; but how is it with the people who wear out the 

 boots ? One pair of the old sort of soles would wear out 

 four of those tanned by the new process. 



In this work, I have mentioned many famous trotters who 

 improved in speed and bottom until they were eight or ten 

 years old, and lasted until they were fifteen, some of them 

 until they were twenty. None of these horses were forced 

 by high feeding when sucklings and yearlings, and none of 

 them were trained at two and three years of age. If they 

 had been, it is my belief that their careers upon the turf 

 and road would have been ended just about where they 

 began under the system which then prevailed. What has 

 been the result of the forcing and early training of the 

 thorough-bred running horse ? Simply this : he is faster 

 than he ever was at any former period, but his decay is very 

 early and very rapid. In old times, when they never started 

 uotil they were four or five years old, the great racers often 



