7 o THE MORGAN HORSE 



" Whether the Morgan be a scion of the Canadian stock, or be 

 derived from the Dutch, or some other breed which has disappeared 

 in the United States, appears to be a question of some importance to 

 those who would make good selections in order to improve the breed 

 of horses, and whoever can throw any light on the subject will gratify 

 a large portion of your readers by making known his information 

 through 'The Cultivator'. If the French-Canadian did not supply 

 the Morgan, I, for one, should be glad to learn what other breed has 

 ever been known upon this continent that could boast such excellent 

 qualities for common service as are universally admitted to distin- 

 guish both of these breeds". Mr. Linsley, who inserts this letter, adds : 

 "Had Mr. Barnard been, at the time he penned the foregoing, 

 better acquainted with Morgan horses, he might have added to his 

 list of important particulars in which the two breeds differ materially. 

 The Morgan horse is remarkable for the projection of his ribs from 

 the spine, giving him a wide back and a round barrel ; while the 

 Canadian horse is inclined to be flat-sided. They differ much in 

 their style of traveling. The Morgan raises his fore feet but little, 

 while the Canadian horse has a high and labored action of the fore 

 feet. The Canadian horse is certainly very remarkable for the ex- 

 cellence of his feet, but, however the specimen Mr. Barnard had may 

 have failed in this respect, poor feet are of very rare occurrence among 

 Morgan horses". 



The effect of Mr. Barnard's letters was to call out a reply from 

 Justin Morgan, son of the original owner of the horse. We left this 

 younger Justin Morgan, at the breaking up of his father's family in 

 the spring of 1793, a lad of seven years, at the home of Daniel Car- 

 penter in Randolph. This was after the colt was brought to Ran- 

 dolph, and was at the beginning of what appears to have been his 

 first public season there in the stud, when he was four years old. 

 Whether the younger Mr. Morgan ever saw the horse during his 

 life, after the breaking up of his family, does not appear, but very 

 likely he did in the years 1793 and 1794. He lived with Mr. Car- 

 penter until he was twenty-one, or thereabouts, and afterwards estab- 

 lished himself as a merchant, in a small way, at the little hamlet known 

 as Stockbridge Common, in Stockbridge, Windsor county, Vermont. ^ 

 Here he lived his life, acquired a modest competence and raised a 

 family, among whom were three sons. One of these, Harvey D., con- 

 tinued his father's business ; another son, Charles, from whom we 

 have received much of this information, made his home in the ad- 

 joining town of Rochester, where he was long a leading business man 

 of good standing and considerable wealth. He served in both bran- 



