448 
WISCOIS'SIJS' STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
country only can give it. Suffice it to say, however, that his de¬ 
scent has been largely drawn from the thoroughbred for many years 
back in his ancestry. 
Trotting horses of celebrity have been recorded in the English 
periodicals of years ago, particularly Bellfounder, who trotted 194- 
miles in an hour; but in the trotting horse, classed by himself, 
England, as compared with America, has yet made no distinguished 
record; and that the American trotter has been most skillfully bred 
and trained to his recent astonishing achievements is a testimonial 
to our native enterprise beyond that of any other country. Thirty 
years ago, a horse that could trot a mile in three minutes was con¬ 
sidered a remarkable animal. That three minutes has been gradu¬ 
ally reduced from year to year, until in 1875, the mare Goldsmith 
Maid, at eighteen years of age, made her mile in 2 minutes and 14 
seconds, and repeated it in the year 1876, in the same time. We 
now have scores of horses which make their mile in less than 24 - 
minutes on the trotting courses of the country, as well as hundreds 
of them who easily do their mile in 3 minutes speed. Thus the 
American trotter stands at the head of his class over all others in 
the civilized world, as yet discovered. 
If it be inquired in what remarkable manner the rapid speed and 
high qualities of the trotter have benefited the ordinary horse stock 
of the country, the answer is readily given in the fact that our bet¬ 
ter class of driving horses has been wonderfully improved in action, 
as well as in quicker movement, sureness of step, higher pleasure 
to all who either drive or ride after them, and in the increased mar¬ 
ketable price they obtain for their breeders. 
Next in order we may remark, :n the absence of a more appro¬ 
priate name, upon 
The horse of all worJc^ equally adapted to family use, the labors 
of the farm, or other purposes. I doubt if any part of the world, 
climate and soil considered, can show a better class of horses than 
those bred in the United States and the neighboring province of 
Canada. Made up of no particular breed, but an infusion of differ¬ 
ent bloods, they answer an admirable purpose for almost all uses, 
so far as size, endurance, muscular action, and longevity are con¬ 
cerned. A composite breed they may be called, if such a miscel¬ 
laneous admixture can be called a breed at all. They are of all 
colors and sizes, from fourteen and a half to sixteen and a half 
