1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



215 



try can boast of came from a three-fourth thor- horses were superior, too, to those of the districts 

 ough-bred Hambletonian mare. I where thorough-bred stallions were used. If a 



The President had not denied the fact that a good roadster was to be found in Virginia and 

 trifle of thorough-bred blood was a good element Maryland, he was sure to have northern blood 

 in a roadster; and the pi'evious speaker would' in him. Instead of improving the breeds there, 

 recollect that the Messenger horse had the re- the racing blood made them a nuisance as road- 



pute of having vulgar blood in him. 



Mr. Fay, of Boston, from his own experience, 

 had evidence that corroborated what had been 



sters. This was not encouraging to the friends 

 of importing horses from England, to improve 

 our own ; on the contrary, it proved the policy of 



said by Dr. ^Yood ; and that gentleman quoted] Englishmen coming here to purchase our stock - 



the unsurpassed feats of Trustee in proof that 

 there was no stock more hardy and capable of 

 endurance than the thorough-bred. 



Dr. LORING, of Salem, thought the discussion 

 had taken a course foreign to the original inten- 

 tion. Farmers did not wish to breed cart horses, 

 or trotting horses, but good, substantial, useful 

 animals, that could be used for general purposes. 

 Such breed we had here in New England, weigh- 

 ing from 900 to lOoO lbs., hardy, well made, ca- 

 pable of great endurance, fair drivers, and pa- 

 tient under fatigue and hardship. They were 

 very valuable to the farmer, although they might 



for improvement. Her best bi-eeders had ac- 

 knowledged the superiority of our horses. One 

 of the most eminent, declared that he had never 

 seen such a horse in England, and that they 

 could not raise such horses there. He further 

 added that no where in the world could such 

 horses be produced, as he had seen here in New 

 England, in our own State — and they vrere not 

 directly, but very remotely allied in blood to the 

 racer. 



Mr. Wetherell, notwithstanding all that had 

 been said, was of the belief that our stock of 

 horses was very much indebted to thorough-bred 



not be exactly alike in all parts where they were blood, in similar measure as our cattle had been, 

 found. Out of the farms, the plows and furrows,' He also thought that too much stress had been 

 this stock had been taken, and had performed placed on speed among us, and that we had cul- 

 greater feats than had been done by any other! tivated it at the expense of endurance. The same 



description of horses. There was, then, no use 

 .'n going back to the old Messengers, Trustees, 

 Abdallahs and Justin Morgans. They were the 

 parents of our present famed stock, but they 

 were not fast themselves. They produced prog- 

 enies of great endurance, not speed, for the speed 

 had been engrafted on the stock since, and that 



evil had appeared among the racing stock of 

 New England. A special point of management 

 — feeding — had also been much neglected, as 

 well as the careful watering, training and gener- 

 al treatment. These things should be better at- 

 tended to than they had been. 



Mr. BuCKMiNSTER, of the PlougJiman, spoke 



speed had been frequently remarkable, as records I next. He confined his remarks principally to 

 were quoted to show. The Morgans were indeed I the exposition of what he called the fallacious 

 remarkable — more so than any other kind, andi doctrine of breeding a horse to suir general pur- 

 they were not thorough-breds. The author of aj poses. No horse could be so adapted, unless he 



late work on the horse did not recommend the 

 use of Morgan stallions, because they were not 

 thorough-bred ! The history of horses produced 

 by thorough-breds, did not show such trotting 

 feats as those got by the Morgans. Why then 

 should racer blood be infused into our stock ? 



was treated cruelly, by being made to accomplish 

 labor which he was not perfectly adapted to per- 

 form. 



Dr. LoRIXG denied that there was any special 

 necessity for breeding for special purposes, as it 

 was well known that horses could be found in the 



We did not want our horses to run ; they did I country doing the common farm work, which 



not want to run, as it was, but took to trotting 

 naturally, as they had been bred for that object. 

 Moreover, the Morgans were adapted for all gen- 

 eral purposes, and that was more than the racers 



could be put to any labor on the road, the field 

 or the street without cruelty, but would go into 

 any description of labor to which a horse was 

 physically adapted. Dr. L. commended the use 



were. Take one of your thorough-breds from the of small horses to large mares; the horse not 

 plow, and ride him to market, and what would! more than IG hands high, symmetrical, compact, 

 he be like at the end of the journey ? What ex- 1 and above all things, well tempered. If the con- 

 periments had been made with racer blood, had!trary was the rule, heavy bone and light muscle 



been failures here, for the produce had neither 

 symmetry or substantiality about them. We cer- 

 tainly had among us the best material out of 

 which to breed good farm horses. We had done 

 so, not by management, but by chance, as we had 

 nothing but native material to work upon. Our 



would be the result. 



The President was of opinion that what near- 

 est conformed to the Morgan type was the best 

 model of a horse for general purposes. If he had 

 not said so previously, he had meant to do so. 

 He then announced that the question for next 



