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Now we claim that the department of Mechanic Arts suffers 

 yearly by reason of undue attention paid to stock and that so called 

 more popular part horse trotting. "We do not depreciate the value 

 of stock. Let us not be understood to disparage the horse in par- 

 ticular, as an animal useful and ornamental, or lessen the attention 

 due to his meritorious appearance and performances. But we have 

 seen men who held their own muscle cheaper than the sinews of a 

 horse. And many to-day look upon a horse as an exceedingly 

 famous thing. Said one man, " He who cannot love a horse is not 

 fit to have a wife." Now this estimation is false. * The horse is as 

 the buggy, worth so much. Either may die or wear out, and be 

 replaced. The one grows in the course of nature, the other is cre- 

 ated by human genius. If arrogant in your claims for horseflesh, 

 take it away. Is an animal more beautiful than a steam engine ? 

 more safe in proportion to the labor achieved? more powerful? 

 more noble ? Shall the horse say to the mower, I am better than 

 thou. And what ox will presume to challenge the merit of a plow 

 or cart ? Alike devoid of reason, there is the brute hfe working by 

 instinct over compulsion, and the unreasoning machine, obeying the 

 law fixed unalterably by the adaptation of its parts in accordance 

 with some idea. Both are subservient to the wants of man. Each 

 ministers in its way to his necessities. Their importance varies as 

 their efficiency. 



Now the Fair must be conducted in its own interest. But we 

 know of no interest that wairants the expenditure of so much money 

 upon "time." Let it be that some person probably not a member 

 has a horse of great speed. We can never afford to give one tenth 

 of our premiums to a single race. So much money goes for no fair 

 equivalent. Not a working man in the community is the gainer. 

 The stock raisers and those interested in useful products, are crip- 

 pled in their shares of premiums. The better part is thereby dis- 

 coiu'aged from attending at inevitable expense, and the interest of 

 the farmer is sacrified to an empty show. 



For really there is not the interest in the " trot " that at sight one 

 supposes. True, most persons crowd to the ring, and all are look- 

 ing, as look they must in some direction, and for a brief space the 

 heads of the drivers are visible, but all, it may be affirmed, after 

 standing and staring to witness the final heat, turn with imusual 

 rehsh toward the Hall, to those exhibitions that please to an equal 

 extent and advantage the spectator in a tenfold ratio. 



We believe that in no year of the century have the interest of the 



