48 THE HOKSK. 



of the United States, diiferent local breeds of horses, apparently 

 peculiar, and now become nearly indigenous to those localities, 

 and that those breeds differ not a little, as well in qualities as in 

 form and general appearance, 



A good judge of horse flesh, for instance, will find little 

 difficulty in selecting the draught-horse of Boston, that is to say, of 

 Massachusetts and Vermont, from those of New York and New 

 Jersey, or any of the three from the large Pennsylvania team- 

 horses, or from the general stock of the Western States. 



The Vermont draught-horse and the great Pennsylvania 

 hoise, known as the Conestoga horse, appear to me in some con- 

 siderable degree to merit the title of distinct families, inasmuch as 

 they seem to reproduce themselves continually, and to have done 

 60 frorii a remote period, comparatively speaking, within certain 

 regions of country, which have for many years been furnisliing 

 them in considerable numbers to those markets, for which their 

 qualities render them the most desirable. 



I had hoped, on commencing this work, to be able to obtain 

 authentic and satisfactory accounts of these various families, and 

 to have approximately at least, fixed their origin and derivation. 

 With a view to this end, I addressed circulars to the officers of 

 the agricultural societies of all tlie principal breeding States of 

 the Union, to whom I take this opportunity of recording my 

 obligations for the aid which they have rendered me in my un- 

 dertaking; but I regret to say, that the result has generally been 

 disappointment; for, with scarcely an exception, these most 

 useful societies being but of recent origin, and having turned 

 their attention rather to improving the present and providing 

 for the future, than to preserving records of the past, have in 

 their possession no documentary evidence whatever, as to the 

 sources whence their peculiar stocks have derived their origin 

 and excellences. All, therefore, that can now be done, is to 

 describe the characteristic points of the breeds in question, and 

 by comparison with existing foreign races, and by the collation 

 of such scanty notices of importations as can be gleaned from 

 periodicals, to approach, conjecturally, the blood from which 

 they are derived, and also the manner in which they have been 

 orig nated, where they are now found. 



