130 THE HOKSE. 



pluck and indomitable perseverance, have been extraordinarily 

 high bred — as much so, to say the least, as the hest English 

 hunters, thirty years ago, or as most English hunters, except in 

 the grass counties, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire and North- 

 amptonshire, at the jiresent day. 



Lastly, it stands preeminently confessed and undeniable, that 

 the speed and powers of the trotting-horse of America are as yet 

 in a progressive and improving state. That constant increase of 

 speed does not imply decrease of power to endure, either in 

 reference to time or to the weight carried or drawn, but exactly 

 the reverse. In other words, the experience of the day shows 

 that with improvement in speed, improvement in endurance, 

 both for distance and for the weight to be moved, advances 

 likewise. ISTor that only, but figure, action, size and appearance 

 also. 



That is among the reasons which goes far to disprove the 

 growing oj^inion, that with the efforts to increase speed in the 

 English and American race-horses, its admirers are sacrificing 

 bottom, courage and power. 



In other words, that the animal is degenerating. 



Now it is clear, that since blood is more largely infused from 

 the best horses into the veins of the ordinary American road- 

 ster, the endurance and the beauty of that class of animal, as 

 well as its speed, are increasing a hundredfold. 



This certainly does not go to show that thorough blood is 

 deteriorated itself, or the cause of deterioration in others; much 

 less that as some blockheads — I can use no other term — have 

 argued, it requires a mixture of coarse cold blood to restore its 

 pristine vigor. 



Much more conclusively does it controvert, confound and 

 utterly condemn the foolish, fanatical, prick-eared, false philoso- 

 phy of the pundits of the Agricultural Societies, who would pro- 

 hibit the exhibition of speed at their fairs ; as if by being fast on 

 foot, horses lost the power of staying a distance, or carrying or 

 drawing a weight, whereas every one knows the fact to be the 

 very reverse ; and that there are ten horses to-day, in every 

 county in the Union, which can draw two men in a wagon at a 

 rate of ten miles an hour, and keep up their work, where there 



