House and Garden 
for the purpose he served in any land,—that bred 
true to type. 
The Morgan horse was handsome, sound, cour¬ 
ageous, willing, gentle, intelligent, long-lived. He 
was not large in respect of long legs, and speed was an 
accidental adjunct, which did not necessarily accom¬ 
pany his existence. 
There can be little doubt that the original Morgan 
horse was an animal of pure breeding since he has 
been able to impress his characteristics on his de¬ 
scendants for more than a century. What that pure 
blood was, is more than suggested by the fact that 
“ Haleb,” an Arab horse from the desert, was chosen 
from among all the horses shown in the home of 
the Morgan horses, as the nearest illustration of the 
original type. 
Not only was pure blood at the foundation, envi¬ 
ronment must have had its influence in fixing the type, 
the rough hillside pastures, the clear bracing air, the 
limestone soil, through which run the swift brooks 
whose waters were sweet and clean, could not fail to 
contribute to sound legs, big lungs, stout and well 
developed muscles. 
So, it was most fitting that when the United States 
Government proposed to re-establish the old Morgan 
breed of horses, the farm should be in Vermont. 
And it was the public spirit which might be expected 
of him, which caused Mr. Battell to make the 
generous gift of the Morgan breeding station to the 
nation. 
There the wisdom ended. Horses were the next 
thing necessary, and there never has been any par¬ 
ticular judgment or discretion displayed by the 
Agricultural Department of the United States. The 
same folly that paid ;^io,ooo for a mongrel stud 
horse from Lawson’s four-in-hand coach, and sent him 
to Colorado, expecting to establish a race of heavy 
harness horses by mating him with mares of broncho 
and other unknown antecedents, was applied to the 
Morgan venture in Vermont. 
In advertising for mares to be used in the Morgan 
stud, the purest and most typical Morgans were 
eliminated, by the requirement that they should be 
15 hands 2 inches in height. The old Morgans 
seldom reached 15 hands. From 14. i (the height 
of “Flaleb,” also that of “Justin Morgan”) to 14.2 or 
14.3 was the Morgan size. Of the true Morgans, 
very few excepting those in the Morrill family were 
15 hands high. 
In reading the list of the mares we find Kentucky 
saddle mares, and others of foreign blood in the 
foundation stock. 
Then what did they do for a stallion Bought a 
mongrel! Why Because he had a brother that had 
trotted to a low record! This horse is a beauty. 
He should be gelded, and might make someone a 
handsome driving horse. He should never be per¬ 
mitted to stand in the stud. Why .? Because he is a 
mongrel! His sire was a good horse and a Morgan, 
grandson of one of the greatest horses that ever lived, 
old “Ethan Allen,” son of another great horse, 
“Honest Allen.” 
His dam was by a running horse, full of 
“Potomac” blood. It is notorious, that although 
“Potomac” is found registered in the thoroughbred 
stud book, he had so much plow-mare blood in him, 
that his presence in a pedigree has for years been 
a stain. 
It was the “Potomac” blood in certain American 
pedigrees that caused a decision of the English Jockey 
Club to prevent Mr. Haggin’s colts and fillies from 
being entered in the “General Stud Book,” which 
made such a row a few years ago. Then, the grand- 
dam of “Gen. Gates” was by a pacing horse. 
In the words of the immortal Squeers—“here’s 
richness!” 
If a man could not breed a horse that should be like 
Heinze’s pickles of “57 different kinds,” by going 
to the premier stallion of the Government breeding 
stud of Morgans in Vermont, where could he look 
for it 
Now, there are pure Morgan stallions and mares 
living, registered in Mr. Battell’s book, that could he 
had for the Government stud. 
The writer could direct any one truly interested 
to a dozen or more, and put the Government mana¬ 
gers in communication with a man who knows the 
old type and where to find them. 
The Government managers know about Mr. 
Schuyler’s horse “Rob Roy” and Mrs. Kelley’s 
“Falcon,” for they have sought their services. I here 
are others equally good and pure bred, more nearly 
thoroughbred in Morgan lines than most of the 
running horses in the Jockey Club stud book. 
But the point is what should be held to. If the 
Government is going to breed Morgan horses, they 
should breed pure Morgans. This is not an argu¬ 
ment that there is no other good horse. It is merely 
an insistence that a Morgan horse is one thing, and 
any other horse is something else. 
If it is worth while for the Government to breed 
Morgans, they should be real Morgans, so pure, so 
true to the old type, that any one who wants to try 
experiments with Morgan blood in other families 
will be sure he is getting nothing else if he buys at 
the Government stud. 
Tuberculin is one thing, anti-toxin for diphtheria 
is another. It would be just as reasonable for the 
Government to mix the two, in order to deal with 
either tuberculosis or diphtheria in a single dose, as 
for the Government to pretend to be breeding 
Morgan horses, and really be putting out a mixture 
of Morgan, thoroughbred, pacing, saddle bred, hack¬ 
ney mongrels. And all these are to be found m the 
Morgan horses of the Government breeding stud in 
Vermont. 
70 
