SECRETARY'S REPORT. 183 



and successfully endeavored to produce upon their own soil 

 the animal best adapted to the work. 



The Clydesdale horse is about sixteen hands in height and 

 weighs from twelve hundred to sixteen hundred pounds. The 

 most common colors are black, brown, bay and gray. They 

 are sufficiently spirited and courageous, but intelligent, willing, 

 free from vice and very true, steady pullers. Their heads are 

 small and often beautiful, their necks arched, and their legs 

 and feet remarkably good, being of excellent shape, substantial 

 and durable. They are superior travellers, for large horses, 

 and especially famous for their rapid walk, and being often 

 handsome and stylish they are frequently employed as carriage 

 and stout saddle horses. 



Professor Low, in his admirable work, " The Domesticated 

 Animals of the British Islands," says : " The long stride charac- 

 teristic of this breed is partly the result of conformation and 

 partly of habit and training ; but, however produced, it adds 

 greatly to the usefulness of the horses both on the road and in 

 the fields. No such loads are known to be drawn at the same 

 pace by any horses in the kingdom as in the single-horse-carts 

 of carriers and others in the west of Scotland ; and in the labor 

 of the fields these horses are found to combine activity with the 

 physical strength required for draught." 



On the whole, the Clydesdale horses seem to be as distinct a 

 breed and as peculiarly adapted to New England as are the 

 Ayrshire cattle ; and it is to be hoped that some of our wealthy 

 breeders of horses will distinguish themselves and benefit the 

 country by the importation of choice stallions and mares of this 

 valuable stock. It would undoubtedly be wisest to preserve 

 the breed in its purity so far as possible, since the attempt to 

 increase the size of our present stock by the use of large stal- 

 lions upon native mares would result in the production of many 

 coarse and ill-proportioned horses. 



AMERICAN HORSES. 



These horses, like American stock of all kinds, present a 

 great variety of forms and qualities resulting from the character 

 and habits of the people, the peculiarities of climate, soil and 

 food, and the crossing of different breeds. 



