THE 



AMERICAI STABLE GUIDE 



INTRODUCTION. 



The number of Horses in the United States is 

 estimated by careful judges at nearly eight millioHS — em- 

 bracing all varieties, from the peerless Dexter, trotting 

 his mile in 2m. 171s., or the magnificent thorough-bred 

 stallion, the proud sire of hundreds of winners on the turf, 

 to the veriest drudge that drags his weary load along the 

 crowded streets of our large cities. The value of these 

 animals has been computed at from ^2,000,000,000 to 

 $3,000,000,000, a sum almost sufficient to pay off the 

 national debt, and perhaps greater than the entire gold 

 product of the world for the period in which they were 

 reared. 



They may for convenience be divided into four classes, 

 though all such distinctions are of course arbitrary, as they 

 run into one another, so that it is difficult to say where 

 one class begins and the other ends. 



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