THE AMERICAN TROTTING HORSE. 121 



muscles, tendons and sinews will all grow strong. In that way 

 we have got a trotting liorse in America, which I insist upon it 

 (and a great many English gentlemen agree with me) is the 

 best horse for the American farmer there is on the face of the 

 globe. 



I have got sick and tired of hearing about " thoroughbred 

 horses." A thoroughbred horse is a good liorse, that is all. 

 You may talk of " Rysdick's Hambletonian " and the rest, as 

 much as you like, but the moment you get away from the sire, 

 the dam is in a fog ; you don't know what she is. My word for 

 it, tiiat the great power of an American trotting horse consists 

 in this fact : that with the best English blood tl)ere has flowed 

 down into him, from the Canadian French horses, tliat little 

 strain of blood that has given our animals that knee action and 

 propelling power in the hind quarters which charaterize the 

 mass of trotters all along the northern line of the United States. 

 That is the American trotting horse. I don't think there is any 

 rule to lay down about him, except that he is a Yankee horse. 



I have tried to answer the question as well as I can. Start 

 from a recognized breed, and let your societies stick and hang 

 to that. If any man comes in and says that he has got a bull 

 whose dam was not exactly pure, ask him if he will be kind 

 enough to go and get a bull whose dam is exactly pure. That 

 is the end of it. We have tried to get round it, gentlemen, but 

 the additional expense is only about fifty dollars, and it is fifty 

 dollars well invested. 



Now, 1 desire to say a word or two to confirm what Professor 

 Law said this morning. You will excuse me, because this 

 has been a favorite suiject with me, and some ten years ago I 

 occupied more than fifty pages of one of Mr. Flint's excellent 

 reports with an essay upon it. Not one singls proposition which 

 1 stated then, I am glad to know, has ever been disputed or 

 refuted by any scientific gentleman who has appeared before 

 you. You have heard, time after time. Professor Agassiz con- 

 firm what I then said, and, to-day, in the most elaborate and 

 comprehensive lecture by Professor Law, who has been 

 thoroughly educated in the English schools, he has confirmed 

 every position I took. One or two things which he said will 

 bear repeating. In the first place, in regard to the use of im- 

 mature animals. How much we have said about that discarded 

 16 



