78 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



Now, the writer firmly believes that breeding of 

 handsome and fast trotting-horses in America is, and 

 will continue to be, a most profitable business. He 

 believes it will yield for the money invested a larger 

 return by twenty per cent than any other branch of 

 agriculture ; and he believes that this is especially true 

 in the New-England States. The fact is, agriculture 

 proper — by which I mean the tillage of the soil, and the 

 production of those products that grow directly out of 

 the soil — can no longer be relied upon to keep alive the 

 agricultural spirit, or sustain the agricultural wealth, of 

 New England. We cannot compete successfully with 

 the Middle States and the Great West in the raising of 

 cereals, or, indeed, in the breeding of those animals 

 whose market value can never rise beyond a certain 

 moderate price, and to fit which for the market the 

 products of their great wheat and corn fields are ser- 

 viceable. Hence it comes about, that in swine and 

 beeves, and the lower-price horses. New England can 

 never compete with Ohio and Illinois, Wisconsin and 

 Texas. When horses of good serviceable quality for 

 family and team use can be shipped from Michigan to 

 Boston, and sold in our sale stables at a hundred and 

 seventy -five dollars per head, no Massachusetts breeder 

 can afford to raise colts of ordinary quality. So long 

 as the cost of transporting a horse from the West to 

 the seaboard is less than the difference of the cost of 

 supporting him from the time lie is foaled to the time 

 he is ready for the market, New England cannot afford 



