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Breeding Morgan Horses 3 
MOVEMENT TO CONSERVE BEST BLOOD 
This diluting and scattering of valuable Morgan blood went on for 
many years with little serious thought given toit. Atleast no definite 
collective action was taken until a comparatively few years ago, 
when several public-spirited men, who knew personally of the many 
meritorious qualities of the Morgan horse, made an effort to preserve 
the best specimens of the breed. In 1906 the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture and the Vermont State Experiment Station were 
authorized to assemble a small band of Morgan mares at the station 
farm near Burlington, which formed the beginning of a permanent 
project to conserve and perpetuate the best of the breed. 

Fic. 2— Troubadour of Willowmoor 6459. Sire of many young Morgans at U. S. Morgan Horse Farm 
(Photograph taken at end of breeding season) 
ORIGIN OF U. S. MORGAN HORSE FARM 
The late Col. Joseph Battell, of Middlebury, Vt., had long been a 
ereat admirer of Morgan horses and had raised many high-class 
horses of this breed at his Breadloaf Stock Farms. Colonel Battell 
was also the founder of the American Morgan Register, a work which 
took up the authentic recording of Morgan blood lines at a point 
where D. C. Linsley, also of Middlebury, left off. The movement to 
keep together the best Morgan blood appealed to Colonel Battell, 
and he gave to the United States Department of Agriculture a farm 
of 400 acres 2 miles north of Middlebury, in the town of Weybridge. 
The gift put the work on a much more substantial foundation and 
gave greater opportunity in the way of pasture and equipment for 
the care of the breeding stock. 
