THE MORGAN HORSE 227 



The desire was to secure a quick -moving, pleasure- 

 giving, saddle- and road-horse. In New England, the 

 Morgan horse came to supply a long-felt want of 

 bright farm boys. But the fitness of the horse of that 

 period for agricultural work was not entirely lost sight 

 of. The boys were looking for a horse that could out- 

 trot, out-run, out-jump any other horse, and could 

 pull anything that had one end loose. The Morgan 

 horse came nearer to fulfilling these requirements than 

 any other horse of that period. In most sections of the 

 country there were few well-bred, prepotent horses, 

 like the Morgans, for improving the nondescript farm- 

 horse. It is only within the last part of the nine- 

 teenth century that an intelligent grasp of the funda- 

 mental principles of breeding has been secured by a 

 few; and a fairly clear comprehension of the reproduc- 

 tion and improvement of domestic animals has not yet 

 been secured by the great majority of breeders, although 

 many farmers are breeders of horses. The lack of 

 adequate knowledge of the principles which should 

 govern in the breeding and rearing of horses is appar- 

 ent in the multitude of unsymmetrical, inefficient horses 

 seen alike in country and city. Had not progressive, 

 far-seeing horsemen imported numbers of the best 

 animals of Europe, the horses of America would be 

 more inferior than they are perhaps as poor as are 

 those of China. 



It is only in the last decade that the farm -boy has 

 had any opportunity for securing instruction in the 

 science of breeding good horses. As yet, but few have 

 availed themselves of even the meager provisions which 



