286 
Annual Report of the 
2:40 horse ought to be ruled out. I think that is so. I think that 
horse-racing is injurious to farmers. What I object to is turning a 
state or county fair into a horse-race in any large or considerable 
part. I think that the horse race will ultimately eat out everything 
else in the fair. It is the most attractive thing to the populace, and 
therefore in order to draw and get good fees at the gate, more and 
more attention will be paid to the horse-racing and horse-racing 
day. And more and more will people come to see horses race, and 
the prizes will be given larger and larger on the horse-racing, with 
a consequent reduction in other departments, and the interest in 
the fair itself will decrease. 
The question of horses, it seems to me, ought to rest primarily 
on the relation of the horse to the farm, and in that relation it 
« 
ought to be taken into the fairs, and it should be bred in relation to 
farm interests and presented on the fair-ground in that light. Rac¬ 
ing has no more connection with agriculture than outside enjoy¬ 
ment and proceedings, simply because it happens to come on that 
day. I don't object to seeing horses at a fair. But we are educat¬ 
ing our young men at the fairs, and they have already an undue 
predilection for races, and an undue failure to appreciate the good 
qualities of farm and carriage-horses. Now let us direct their att¬ 
ention to the substantial purpose of the horse and not make jock¬ 
eys out of them. I cannot quite explain it, but somehow if a man 
attaches himself too strongly to a horse it does him a mischief. 
When he gets to be a jockey there is a falling off of manhood about 
him. 
Mr. Webster. I have a word to say in this matter. I don’t 
agree exactly with my friend here, the farmer Mr. Anderson. The 
most of us are not situated as he is perhaps. We are poor, we are 
not able to keep so many horses, and my experience is that the 
horse that will do me on the farm must do me on the road, and 
that about a 1,200 pound horse will answer that purpose. 
Now, if we had plenty of horses we might do as this gentleman 
does, but all of us can't manage that. I think we are a little too 
fast on this racing and have overdone the thing perhaps. I 
have two horses that I put on the track, thinking perhaps that I 
was going to beat somebody. Well, I put them on the track at a 
cost of about $60, and then got up to about three minutes; and 
of course I was beaten. So I said to my boys, now you will learn 
