32 'MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



dairies, whose immense frame has served as the foundation of a 

 most valuable race of animals in England, did much to increase 

 the dairy products of our farmers, belonging as she did to a race 

 of milkers. And it soon became evident that the most rapid 

 and economical way t6 arrive at any desirable point, was to 

 begin at' once at the fountain head, wherever that had been 

 fixed. 



Whoever at the present day desires a dairy herd, can find 

 animals bred for that special purpose, for many generations, 

 on the farms in Ayrshire, and which have been brought by 

 care and cultivation to the highest standard of a milking 

 cow. lie cannot find that in this country, he must go abroad 

 for it. So also of animals for beef, work, A:c. There are 

 better breeds of cattle in England and Scotland than there are 

 .in our own country — with the exception of those imported by 

 us, or descended directly from our importations. 



Now, this is not the case with regard to our horses. The 

 American trotting horse is an animal after his own kind, and 

 I venture to say unequalled by any horse on the face of the 

 earth, in all that makes such an animal truly valuable for all 

 kinds of work. It takes true equine genius to make a trotting 

 horse. His mechanism must be as well balanced and as 

 symmetrical as a locomotive. Propelled as he is by one quarter 

 at a time, his progress is the result of nerve, and strength, and 

 decision, unknown and utterly ignored in that leaping, bound- 

 ing motion, where one end follows the other, as is the case 

 with the running horse of the English turf. He must be solid 

 in his foot, strong in his limb, firm in his back, free and easy 

 in his stride, and above all things, calm and collected amidst 

 all those trials of the track and the road which tend to throw 

 him off his balance, and reduce him to the level of the hare, 

 and the fox, and the grey-hound, and the English race-horse, 

 running helter-skelter in a natural manner, without the exer- 

 cise of any faculties except those with which nature endows 

 the coward when he flies from danger or conflict. The Amer- 

 ican trotter requires bones, and muscles, and brains. And 

 when he stands high in the list, he has them all. For com- 

 pactness of form and ease of motion, for strength, endurance, 

 and sagacity, he is unequalled. 



