226 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



IiEGISIiATIVE AQBICULTURAIi SOCIETY. 



[Reported for. the Faemer by D. W. Lothrop.] 

 The twelfth meeting of the series was held at 

 the State House, on Monday evening last, when 

 the subject for discussion was — Tlie Breed of 

 Horses best adapted to Massachusetts. Dr. LoR- 

 ING, of Salem, was invited to preside. 



The chairman observed that we all understood 

 the value of horses, as they were not only a luxury 

 in civilized life, but a necessity in various depart- 

 ments of labor, particularly so to the farmer. In 

 regard to the best breeds or kinds, it was pretty 

 certain to him, negatively, that the large, or the 

 thorough breeds, were neither of them the proper 

 and economical kinds for general use in Massa- 

 chusetts. He had often expressed his objections 

 to large animals, such as cattle, sheep, &c., and he 

 would do the same in respect to horses. One is 

 astonished in looking at large Cleveland Drays, 

 weighing 1500 or 1600 pounds or more ; but for 

 ordinary purposes, the Suffolksand Black Hawks, 

 ■weighing 1000 pounds or less, were superior to 

 thera. They were light and elastic, compact in 

 organization, and the kind which Youatt would 

 recommend. They are of the class we need, as 

 they never tire, and can do as much work as the 

 larger ones. So as to the Morgan horses ; they 

 are firm, compact, active, good roadsters, and are 

 not surpassed for farming purposes generally. 

 Their strength is proverbial. Dr. L. also spoke of 

 the less expense of feeding these smaller horses, 

 and said that in their construction, too, there 

 were no such horses as we have. For the present 

 war, the horses from Vermont, weighing from 900 

 to 1000 pounds, are the best, and in fact our finest 

 horses come from that State ; and we in New 

 England should congratulate ourselves that we 

 have such a race. These excellent horses are in- 

 digenous or native to our soil — not even the Mor- 

 gan breed has any thorough blood now. The 

 coarse horses of Maine are not so good as those 

 more compact ones from Vermont. For ordinary 

 purposes, he believed, we had a better race of 

 horses than we could import. In fact, some of 

 our Black Hawk mares, worth $1000 each here, 

 have doubled their price in England. 



Of thorough breeds, their mechanism is not so 

 good and hardy as others. They are almost 

 useless in England ; they break down, are not fit 

 for roadsters, plowing, &c., and we violate the 

 rules of sound mechanism by their importation and 

 in-breeding. Dr. L. here alluded to the osteolog- 

 ical formation of a good trotting horse in regard 

 to the humerus and scapula, giving him the pow- 

 er to raise his fore legs with ease, grace and agili- 

 ty. The thorough-breeds, on the contrary, are a 

 shuffling, daisy-cutting race, and had been found 

 so in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, and some 

 other States. Proof to this eflfect was cited from 



a medical man from one of the above-named 

 States. Herbert once advocated thorough breeds, 

 and he says they are poor on the road, and are not 

 designed as trotters. The speaker said they had 

 not the element or power of trotting well, but the 

 American horse is a trotting horse, and has the 

 proper mechanism for it, also for the farm. On 

 the track it had been said that Patchen was a 

 thorough-breed ; and some said Trustee was, for 

 whom it was claimed that he could trot twenty 

 miles in an hour. The old Messenger in Maine 

 was no trotter, hardly making five miles the hour. 

 Flora Temple, however, was unquestionably a 

 Yankee horse, with no thorough blood ; and Ethan 

 Allen, Black Hawk and Lady Suffolk, though all 

 great trotters, are equally good for the New Eng- 

 land farm. Dr. O. W. Holmes the speaker ob- 

 served, would as soon breed dice boxes as thor- 

 ough breeds. In a visit to Vermont to see its cat- 

 tle. Dr. L. said he found a horse at Avork in a ci- 

 der-mill. The owner wanted to sell him, and tak- 

 ing a ride together, he went twelve miles an hour 

 easily. He was a mixture of the Morgan and 

 Norman blood, between 700 or 800 in weight, and 

 the speaker bought him, and finds him good on 

 the road for ten miles an hour. Horses like this 

 we cannot find in the other States, or out of New 

 England. Here is the place for the farmer to pur- 

 chase, and he should not trouble himself about 

 importations, for Ave have a consolidated stock un- 

 surpassed, if not unequalled. • 



Mr. Wetiierell said farmers had a deep inter- 

 est in this subject. On the whole, horse-breeding 

 does not pay. Stonehenge said breeding was like 

 a lottery — it being rare that you got a good ani- 

 mal. Of thorough breeds, if they are not good, 

 how many of the Black Hawks are poor trotters ? 

 The best trotters have no Morgan blood in thera. 

 As to the term indigenous, he did not understand 

 it. [Dr. Loring explained as to their domestic 

 identity.] But neither our horses or cattle are 

 indigenous ; they all came from abroad. He did 

 not like the discarding of thorough breeds. What 

 are the best looking and most dignified horses ? 

 Look at the Arabian. Some say the horse is from 

 Egypt, or Africa ; but he thought he Avas from 

 Asia. These horses had improved the English, 

 and they were thorough breeds. If the thorough 

 breed is no better than had been stated, then the 

 rules in regard to breeding cattle are set at naught. 

 The Arabian breeds only from his OAvn best stock, 

 and his horses are kept in a pure state. Mr. W. 

 advocated thorough breeds, and Avas surprised that 

 they should be so taken doAvn. Stonehenge says 

 that 300 thorough-bred stallions had been import- 

 ed here, and the Morgan and Black Hawk races 

 Avould have been Avorthless Avithout their blood. 

 The osteological mechanism is the same for trot- 

 ting as for racing. Flora Temple and Lady Suf- 



