BREEDING OF HORSES. 297 



nothing but an accidental family, sprung from the loins of a 

 noble horse that had in his veins, according to my theory, 

 which I believe has hardly been disputed in this valley, a 

 strain of blood that very likely came from an Arabian horse 

 that was kept at Hartford in the latter part of the last cen- 

 tury. There was enough of some good blood in Justin Mor- 

 gan to go on without being re-inforced from the outside for 

 forty or fifty years, and make the people of the State of 

 Vermont famous as horsemen. I stated at Springfield last 

 winter, and I am willing to state again, that I do not believe 

 the horses of this valley are nearly as good as they were in 

 the boyhood of many persons here present. The last gen- 

 eration had great use for horses on the road. I remember 

 when stage lines ran through this valley, from Springfield 

 up into Canada, with horses that it would be difiicult to find 

 now, in any part of Massachusetts. All of you who are as 

 old as I am remember it. 



Now what are we goino^ to do? We are SToins: to raise 

 some horses. We always do raise a few ; but the question is, 

 what shall we raise, and how shall we make this husbandry 

 profitable, which has been so discreditable to us as breeders? 

 The horses most in demand, and that must bear the hijrhest 

 price during the next decade of years, are those wanted by 

 farmers. We need horses of more stamina, of better gen- 

 eral quality, and of larger size than those we have had. We 

 must have animals that are fit for the plough, the mowing- 

 machine, the milk wagon, and quick on the road. It is poor 

 economy to keep two kinds. We do not want a little 

 "tucked up," lathy "trotter," such as have been bred in 

 droves during the last twenty years, to go to town, and a 

 slow, heavy horse at home to do a day's work. 



We should combine docility of temper, steady nerve, 

 quick action, weight and power, in one horse. We nmst 

 have access to stock horses which will perpetuate their kind, 

 and not run back into a wilderness of scrubs and produce that 

 which will be a disappointment and expense to us every time 

 we attempt to breed. I think we have a better way laid out 

 for us thtin we have followed in the past. 



For several years there has been much interest at the 

 West in horse-breeding, because the East offers such a quick 



