1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



229 



ing and instructive volume, in itself. The Journal, 

 (as well as the transactions which it records) is a 

 credit to the genius and ^perseverance which de- 

 vised and executed the whole, and is a crowning glory 

 to the operations of the year. 



We are glad to see institutions of all sorts, even 

 of the most primary character, established to pro- 

 mote the interests of the Farm. The village farm- 

 ers' club is unquestionably the true starting point, 

 — and like the fishery for those who are to stand 

 on the quarter-deck, — qualifies those who are to 

 conduct others into more difficult and imjjortant 

 regions of the Art. These men will be active and 

 efficient in the County Societies, and will become 

 those who are to act with wisdom and foresight, in 

 an Association which recognizes the interests of the 

 Nation. 



The next exhibition of the U. S. Society is to be 

 held in Philadelphia in October next, and the same 

 untiring energy which carried the last exhibition to 

 such brilliant results, will be infused into the next. 

 But the responsibilities of such an enterprise are 

 more than should be demanded of one person — the 

 Vice President of each State (as well as all commit- 

 tees) should stand ready to co-operate with the 

 President, and second his efforts in every possible 

 way. The experience, the zeal and indomitable en- 

 ergy of Col. Wilder, as the controlling head, will 

 accomplish much, but that will not exonerate oth- 

 ers from the discharge of a fair share of the labor 

 to be employed. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HORSES AT CATTLE SHOWS. 



Mr. Editor: — I read with much interest your 

 valuable paper, atfid have been a subscriber for a 

 long time, and look forward with much pleasure to 

 the close of each week which brings to my door a 

 new number; and as you remark after the article 

 signed "Middlesex," on "Horse-racing at Cattle 

 Shows," "that there is a diversity of opinion on the 

 subject," and also expressed your willingness to 

 yield room for discussion on the matter, I have 

 written, not to take issue against my friend from 

 Newton Centre, for I agree with him in pail, but to 

 offer my little mite to the many valuable articles in 

 your columns, hoping it may interest some of your 

 readers. Although there may be truth in the re- 

 marks of my friend, I cannot see why the strength, 

 the power and the speed of horses may not, with 

 propriety, as well be tried at our agricultural fairs, 

 as the products of the farm in other particulars. I 

 cannot see the objection to exhibiting, or the driv- 

 ing of horses at oiu* fairs. We must have speed 

 and strength in the animals on the farm to make 

 them useful. Why not ? As the age progresses, man 

 progtesses ; the farmer desires a stronger and better 

 team of horses, — he wants, or ought to want, a horse 

 of all work, — one that will carr}- his load to mill or to 

 church and not stumble by the way-side ; he also 

 ■wishes, or ought to wish for an animal which will 

 carry him to market before market hours are over, 

 or to the village sanctuary before the benediction is 

 pronounced, and if tliey be but four or five miles 



distant, he ought to be carried there in a shorter 

 space of time than three or four hours, and to do 

 this, my friend must give up in a measure his anti- 

 quated ideas, and join in a degree the young Amer- 

 ica school, (I do not mean politically speaking.) 



How is this to be done ? Must we pay the same 

 and no more attention than our fathers and grand- 

 fathers did to their stock ? raise the same breed of 

 cows, hogs and horses as they did ? Or shall we 

 improve our stock ? Shall we, because they thought 

 that $ 100 for a horse was a large figure, be satisfied ? 

 Surely not. Now, Mr. Editor, I do not see why a 

 spirit of emulation ought not to exist, just as well 

 among the breeders of horses, as in the raisers of 

 butter or hogs. Can we not have the horse, the 

 noble horse, represented at our fairs ? Who wants, 

 unless it be the sluggard, a slow horse, either for 

 the plow, the harrow or the carriage ? There are 

 men, and those of high respectability, among us, 

 who have been at great expense to introduce a breed 

 of horses that shall excel in their various callings. 

 They have presented at our fairs the draft horse, 

 the strong, powerfully framed animal, capable of 

 much labor, he is certainly useful, in his way ; his 

 strength and his good qualities have been shown at 

 our exhibitions, and why cannot the roadster have 

 his place ? surely his duties ought not to be over- 

 looked. We ought and must have, to meet the de- 

 mand of a certain and by no means a disreputable 

 class of men, the horse of speed and bottom, style 

 him what you may, a fast horse, or the horse of en- 

 durance, and how can his qualities be tested, (any 

 better than my friend's butter,) unless it be at public 

 fairs ? If one has a horse, such an one as is called 

 by a friend of mine, and a good agriculturist, "the 

 gentleman's powerful roadster, that can go his thir- 

 teen miles within the hour," we are at once asked 

 by the buyer, and the very first question in such 

 sales invariably is, "How fast is he ?" 



Now, I say, we must have such horses, and I can- 

 not see why my friend from Newton cannot allow 

 us, who love the horse as dearly as he loves his 

 hogs, to have a place for our horses at the fairs. I 

 am sure that the greatest and most beautiful attrac- 

 tion, and the one that drew and interested by far 

 the most people of all sexes, all professions and 

 trades, was the magnificent display of horses at the 

 late United States Agricultural Fair at Boston. I 

 will venture to say that where any other part of the 

 exhibition was amusing to ten persons, the lovers of 

 the horse were ten times that number. I for one, 

 am anxious to have everything relative to the farm, 

 be it in the way of horses or of butter, well and 

 Ijroperly represented, each and all in their re- 

 spective places, and have the privilege granted to 

 all to follow their oaati inclination in visiting every 

 part of the exhibition, and not be confined to any 

 particular branch. I will agree to furnish one hun- 

 dred persons that would pay their half-dollar to visit 

 an exhibition of horses, where my friend from New- 

 ton Centre would obtain ten at 12^ cents each, to 

 visit his dairy, (not to speak dispf^ragingly.) I have 

 written these rough ideas as they have suggested 

 1 themselves to me, and trust my friend would not 

 j desire me so cruel a wish that I miglit be deprived of 

 I his nice tasting and without doubt elegant looking 

 I butter, just because I am so fond of that beautiful 

 {animal, the horse. Essex. 



(5:^* Tart words make no friends : a spoonful of 

 honey will catch more files than a gallon of \iuegar. 



