The New York Farmers 



'TpHE first meeting of the season was held at the Metropolitan Club on Tues- 

 -■■ day evening, December 19, 1905, the President, Mr. Barnes, presiding. 

 After dinner the President introduced Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, who de- 

 livered the following address : 



"Origin and History of the Horse." 



Prof, Osborn — It is unnecessary to say in this presence that the horse is 

 the noblest of the domesticated animals and has been to man the most useful of 

 all the domesticated animals, not barring the cow. In support of this state- 

 ment you must recall the fact that in certain parts of Asia there are no cattle, 

 and that the people subsist entirely and have subsisted for hundreds if not thous- 

 ands of years upon the products of the horse, including the milk of the mare, 

 which of course is prepared in the form of kumyss. 



Just a few words of introduction to the history of the horse, which is our 

 subject. It is very largely connected with the explorations which we have con- 

 ducted from the American Museum of Natural History, which began in the 

 year 1891. In 1889 we made in Northeastern Texas the rather remarkable dis- 

 covery of a considerable number of skeletons of the horse reared in America, 

 that is, of the original North American horse, which became extinct not only 

 before the discovery of the country by the Spaniards, but long before that time. 

 There are no traces of the horse in the Aztec history of Mexico, or in the knowl- 

 edge of any of the South American peoples, or even in the myths of the American 

 Indian. The animal therefore became entirely extinct in this country, all as- 

 sertions to the contrary being unfounded. 



Our discovery was of five or six of the original American horses, which 

 had previously only been known by portions of the skeletons, and it put into 

 my mind the possibility of a series of explorations which should be especially 

 directed to the subject of the history of the horse in America, a subject in which 

 we may feel considerable national pride, because it is highly probable, although 

 not yet absolutely demonstrated, that the direct ancestors of this noble animal 

 came from America before the race became extinct, and that the horse is there- 

 fore one of the gifts of America to the world. 



This project interested the late Mr. William C. Whitney, and during the 

 three last years of his life he gave a fund which was especially devoted to ex- 

 plorations with this end in view, and among the very considerable number of 



