1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 181 



product, it is necessary to send to the city to find a market ; 

 but, with this class of horses, buyers will come to your 

 door ; they will follow you out to the plough field or 

 meadow, and the farmer is at no expense except the loss of 

 his time while showing them. He should ask a good price 

 for them, but he should never let a buyer go away without 

 the horses if he has made a fair offer for them ; and the 

 younger they can be disposed of the better, if it is money 

 and profit you are seeking for. 



The original horses of New England were brought over 

 by the early settlers, and mostly from England. After the 

 country became more settled, a better class of horses was 

 brought over, and quite a number of thoroughbreds, to 

 improve the running horses ; and they were used to some 

 extent on the common mares of the country. 



Perhaps the most noted importation, and one that has left 

 the greatest influence on the road horses of to-day, was that 

 of Messenger, an English thoroughbred, foaled in 1780, and 

 imported in 1788. He stood for a while in Pennsylvania, 

 and the remainder of his life in various parts of New York, 

 with the exception of one year in New Jersey. Messenger 

 was gray, 15 hands 3 inches high, and stoutly built. He 

 was not what would be called a handsome horse, but was a 

 horse of wonderful power. It is said of him that during 

 the voyage to this country the two horses that were imported 

 with him became so reduced that they had to be helped from 

 the boat; but when it came Messenger's turn, he dashed 

 down the gang plank at a stiff trot, with a groom on either 

 side, and in spite of them he trotted some distance up the 

 street, taking them along. 



There is another horse that has left his name and mark on 

 the road horse of New England, who, about the same time 

 that Messenger was on his way to this country, was being 

 led behind a wagon from Springfield, Mass., to the hills of 

 Vermont. Little did the people realize the value of that 

 little colt as he trudged along, and what a power lay in 

 the loins of Justin Morgan, when crossed on the Vermont 

 mares. He was said to have been sired by True 

 Briton, a horse stolen from the British General DeLancey 

 during the Kevolutionary War. True Briton was sired 



