AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOK THE 
Farm, Garden, and. Household. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AN'H MOST NOISLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.”— Washington. 
ESTABLISHED IN 1842, 
Published also in German at same rates as iit H)ii$Hsh. 
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. 
Office, 245 BROADWAY. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in August, 1S76, by the Orange Judd Company, at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 
TERMS: SB.50 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE ; 
4 Copies for $5; 10 for SIM j 540 or more. Si each ; 
10 Cents additional must be sent with eacli Sub¬ 
scription for postage. —Single Number, 15 Cents. 
A short time ago Mr. Meerder, Secretary of the 
General Directory of the Imperial Studs of Russia, 
sent to the editor of the “ Turf, Field and Farm,” 
of New York, a number of photographs of trotting 
horses of the Orloff breed. Through the courtesy 
of the “ Turf, Field and Farm,” we are able to give 
the accompanying portrait of a famous stalliou of 
this breed, which is copied from one of the photo¬ 
graphs sent by Mr. Meerder. The excellence of 
these photographic portraits should set at rest 
those objectors, who pretend that no accurate, life¬ 
like portrait of an animal can be procured by pho¬ 
tography. Although there are some unavoidable 
seeming distortions of parts of the figure in a pho¬ 
tograph, yet these so readily adapt themselves to the 
eye of the intelligent observer—just as the seeming 
inaccuracies of a perspective view of a building are 
recognized and understood—that a photograph is a 
far more satisfactory manner of “ holding the mir¬ 
ror up to nature,” than the majority of drawings or 
paintings would be, unless done with perfect fidelity 
and great skill. In the photograph we see the 
animal as it is, which should be in every way satis¬ 
factory to those who would so represent it. In the 
American Agriculturist for August (page 294) refer¬ 
ence is made to this breed of horses, and some in¬ 
formation given as to their breeding and character. 
Mr. Moerder has written a pamphlet upon “ The 
Russian Trotter,” it which the history and achieve¬ 
ments of these horses are set forth in a full and in¬ 
teresting manner. No horse is considered as a pure 
Orloff, unless he has descended directly from an 
Arabian horse, “ Smetauka,” which was the founder 
of the race. This horse possessed an extra pair of 
ribs, and his skeleton is still preserved in the mu¬ 
seum at St. Petersburg. The stallion here re¬ 
presented is “Pravnouk,” in color brown-bay, 
age 16 years, hight 1GI hands, and raised in the 
stud of Mr. Divov. This stallion is now serving 
in the stud of Mr. Pavlov. It is this breed which 
is used in the production of a class of horses, 
now in demand in Russia for carriage horses. 
