Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-05-18
FARM HORSES AND BLOOD HOR-
From Spirit OF the Times, ls44.l

SeS.
From Spirit OF the Times, 1874
Dear Spirit "A communication on farm
horses, published from the American Ag-
riculturist in your paper of the 23d inst,
is an ably written article, and contains
much information; as was also the case
of A. B. Allen, Esq, in regard to Eng
lish and American horses when he re-
turned from a trip across the water.
These gentlemen are no doubt able and
thriving farmers, and their ideas shine in
the Cultivator and kindred papers; but
my impressions, from their writings, for
years past, Is, that they are pigmen and
not horsemen. Now, ] would say to
them, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, you were
s'to the manner born; a horseman, like
poet or an orator ndscit,r non fit. | can
not tell in what consists this innate spirit
Of horsemanship, but will assure you
that no one possessing it has those plod-
ding calculations always uppermost in
his mind when considering an animal,
about how much it will eat, how fast it
will fatten and what it will fetch in mar
ket. Neither is true horseman likely
to write much for papers with such Curl
Gus, long prosy names as "Cultivator,"
"Agriculturst." etc. l wish to save you
lots of trouble, by letting you know at
once that the horseman, like his favorte
Thoroughbred, is being sui generis not
that he is superior to others; on the con-
~, 11,,1 &c h. hob hx- of n de
him into difficulty and disrepute. Be sat
SIZED, gentlemen, that the horseman is of
peculiar though unenviable compost
lion, which they who have the good for
tune to be born without will do well
never to assume; as such an awkward
Spectacle only provokes with the "know-
ing ones the thought so elegantly ex-
pressed by Falconbridge, in regard to
the misplaced lions hide:
1t sits featly on the back of him,
AS great Alcides' shoes upon an ass.
Content We, sirs; there's room for us
hll on earth horsemen, Durham cattle
men, pigmen and the rest. Do you not
know thousand farmers whose whole
bent is to produce grain? With whom
he idea of a COW, or pair of oxen, or
flock of sheep, weighs only so far as they
see it to be means for the growing of
heir darling commodity? Now, your
bwn aim is evidently Improvement; you
rejoice in the contemplation of labor saw
ng machines; you delight in herds Of
plump cattle fattening at pasture; you
admire the fermentng compost heaps,
md glorying in the full barn, which is
bnly to be emptied in order to replensh
he pocket of the honest and deserving
armer. Your views are mostly sound
md correct; your labors are beneficial to
he community, far above ours; but you
re not hOrsemen; therefore content We,
gentlemen.
"There are more things in Heaven and
farth, Horatio, than are dreampt of in
'our philosophy"
| turn to the congenal spirit" Mr..
A. says: "The turf is not always the
parent of Improvement in horsefesh. Is
essential to this Improvement? Let us
Zee. In the six northeastern New Eng
and States, horse racing has either not
been practised at all, or tolerated in for
ner times occasionally, by some of them,
bnly to a very limited extent. |
ct what has been the result of horse
breeding in these States? Briefly it may
be replied that with comparatively no
Fxtra expense for costly importations,
hey have, till within a few years past,
produced more valuable, serviceable
ace OF horses than could have been
hown from an equal territory, in any
Pther portion of the country. i
hey breed exclusively from the mani
est, tried and acknowledged merits of an
nmal and with some. vet it must be
confessed, too little reference to the mer-
is of ancestry in the one selected for
breeding. We have seen in late
ears how they have been surpassed by
he southern portion of New York, and
specially New Jersey and Long Island.
a the greater number of superior road
ters, the natural result of continued
nd thorough system of breeding choice
hares to the best formed and most sub
tantial imported blood stations"
Now it is well known fact that the
hoice New England stations have con-
family been driven from Long Island
Omit this and Mr.. Aliens paragraph
aries with it a compile refutation of his
rgument. The amount of it is that the
New England States bred good horses
because their sres' stock was selected
mong turf horses; but the neighborhood
New York has recently bred better,
because the turf horses have been still
nore closely adhered to as parent stock.
The Morgan horse of Vermont is de-
eryedly cited by Mr.. A. as one of match
ess quality, and he enormously notes
supposed to have been cross between
choice Norman and English thorough
ln