ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 223 



tude toward horse racing is reflected in the fact that 

 as early as 1802 horse racing and trotting was pro- 

 hibited by law. In 1821 this law was amended to 

 permit trotting and running races in Queens County. 

 Most of New York has a rough topography, the 

 roads as well as the fields often being steep. Light 

 active animals of endurance are considered by many 

 farmers to succeed better in general farm use than 

 do heavy horses. The heavy horse, adapted to deep 

 pastures, rich feed, and slow movement, is better 

 suited to relatively level tlian to broken hilly coun- 

 try. The earlier glamor of the speed horse led to 

 the extensive use of sires of the roadster rather than 

 the draft type, on the ordinary light mares of the 

 rural districts. Consequently, the prevailing type of 

 horse in New York is a rather light animal showing 

 much of the blood of the speedway, of the coach and 

 the chase. It has been estimated that 75 per cent 

 of the horses in the country are of a size between 

 1000 and 1400 pounds. They are a medium sized 

 dual-purpose animal that can do a fair day's work 

 on the farm, and that can keep up a fair gait over 

 the road with a small load or attached to a light 



*o 



wagon. 



The New York farm, perhaps largely because of 

 its hills, and also its history, is still in the era of 

 small fields and small implements. The single bot- 

 tom plow and the light binder and mower predomi- 

 nate rather than the big broad-cutting tools. 

 Whether the automobile and the improved roads will 

 effect a larger trend toward the heavier draft type 



