St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-06-04
FARM AND HOME.
THE MORGAN HORSE.

1t astOnishes us more and more,
as we look about, to find that the
human family are so prone to go at
ter errors rather than truths. For
example: There were two good
families Of horses, Morgans and
Black Hawks, more than fifty years
ago. Men have been spending for
tunes in breeding horses from then
until now, but have not well-dehned
family, which in any way compares
with the Morgans for general
purpose horse. The general purpose
horse is the one above all others that
is most in request today. Are men
ignorant of that fact? Do they all
suppose, for one moment, the horse
that can cover a mile in O6A is the
all-important horse to breed Even
to this day, neglected as the Nor
gans have been as family, any man
who has any knowledge of them,
will tell you that in looking over the
horses at our fairs, he can pick the
Morgans with as much certainty as
he can the Percherons or Clydesdales.
With wonderful prepotency and uni
forlmity in breeding, exquisite beauty,
high spirit and courage, intelligence,
tractableness, and long-lived; does
any one ever expect to see breed OF
all purpose horses possessing more
of these splendid qualities Their
small size is against them for show,
but not for utility. They fall but
very little below the other trotting
families when tested on the scales,
but of course in height they average
less. What we wish most to impress
upon your minds today is, that men
in New England, with red school
house education, unwittingly bred
family of horses, which men with
millions of dollars have not been
been able to equal in fifty years.
The curse of the whole HanbletOnian
tribe is in the lack of uniformity in
size and looks. The Morgans were
uniformly 1owset; up-headed, with
beautiful action, and endowed with
marvellous endurance. Now then,
pray tell US, if men have made no
Improvement in the character of
our all-purpose horses in fifty years
breeding, how long will it take to
get back to the point where they
started fifty years ago, when breed
ers began to let go of the Morgans?
To increase the size of the Morgans
is not slow process; but, If 1t were,
long before breed could be estab-
lished from the mongrels now in
popular use, the Morgan could be
brought to the required size and
made the ideal and perfect horse.
But we must cease this everlasting
crossing business if we wish to pre-
he Ia
qualities But" says one, what
must 1 do: How shall begin, that
1 may produce the horse most in re-
quest for all works." We will state
the plan briefly. First we will tell
you what we have. A class of horses
gifted with great speed and bottom,
long-lived, and good disposition
but they are generally homely, big
headed and low-headed, and have
too much daylight under them;
while the one immensely important
element, that of uniformity in any of
the qualities needed for a general
purpose horse is totally wanting.
Hence, we must pick up the best
fragments of beauty and utility we
can find among the MOrgans, Gold
dusts, Mambrino Kings, Denmarks,
Highlanders and thoroughbreds, and
breed them together, until we have
uniform type. In the Morgan family,
you will find plenty of Golddusts,
Fearnaughts, Magma Chartas,
descendants of Green Mountain Nor
gan and King Herod. Go to work in
earnest and with Judgment, and it
will not be very long before you will
get back to the point where we left
off fifty years ago.-[Dunton's Spirit
of the Turf