PRESENT CONDITION. 61 



toga Yalley, whicli, being crossed with other breeds, have pro- 

 duced some very fine, active, serviceable horses, and all these 

 have been considered Conestoga horses. I recollect a horse 

 that was called " Conestoga Lion," but the name was onlj a 

 fancy of the owner, who resided in Conestoga township ; and 

 the horse was generally known in the neighborhood as " Ste- 

 man's horse ; " and, though many fine colts have been raised 

 from him, he had no more claim to the distinctive title of a 

 Conestoga horse than a hundred others. 



Eespectfally yours, 



John Steohm. 



It will be understood from this clear and intelligent state- 

 ment, which is just what such a statement should be, telling 

 exactly what the writer knows and surmising nothing on proba- 

 bilities, that the original or early horse of this celebrated local- 

 ity, when it first gained its renown, was of the heavy stamp, 

 which, and not the more recent improved type of the same stock, 

 I have described above as the Conestoga horse ; and that it was 

 descended, in part at least, from Flemish and English dray-horse 

 stock. ]N"or is it at all impossible that the "Chester-County 

 Lion," spoken of, may be sprung from the loins of the dray-horses 

 specified heretofore, the dates seeming to corroborate the hypo- 

 thesis, as also the country whence he came. 



Whether there was an earlier Flemish stock brought by the 

 Germans to that locality, or whether they merely raised the 

 standard and size of the horse by breeding, carefully and exclu- 

 sively, from the finest and largest animals, both dam and sire, is 

 not now a point worthy of consideration. That such judicious 

 and scientific breeding will produce its effect after a time, with 

 whatever animal, down to a Bakewell sheep or a Suff'olk swine, 

 is an indisputable fact. 



It is enough that the family is there ; that it was created for 

 a certain purpose, and yet exists and is in demand for analogous 

 purposes, wherever such occur, to the present day. That from 

 this, as from all other strong, bony, cold-blooded stocks, highly 

 useful horses are raised by adoj)ting the service of thoroughbred 

 sires, is merely corroborative of what I have written before, and 

 particularly in relation to the Yermont draft-horse. It only re- 



