PREFACE 



FOR thirty-eight consecutive years I was a 

 visitor at breeding farms and a close observer 

 of horses at speed on the trotting tracks of the 

 country, and in this way I gained knowledge of 

 the subject discussed in this volume. I was an 

 unwavering advocate of movements which estab- 

 lished system where chaos had reigned, and it 

 would be mock modesty for me to pretend that 

 my acquaintance with facts is distant. The evo- 

 lution of the trotter took place during the active 

 period of my life. The fortunate owner of a 

 good library on the horse counts his books by 

 the hundred. Whole volumes have been sur- 

 rendered to one family or tribe. It was no easy 

 task to condense, from thousands of letters and 

 printed pages, the facts which I present. I have 

 tried to give a bird's-eye view of the situation, 

 and have not spun yarns in which a pound of 

 fancy paralyzes one little grain of truth. It has 

 been my aim to give a compact history of 

 development. 



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