The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1910-11-23
HOME OF THE
MORGAN HORSE
History OF the Breed of Yer
mont Horses
TOLD BY NEW YORK SEN.
In Connection with the New York Horse
Show Held Last week-How
the Breed Was Orig
mated.
TOLD BY NEW YORK SEN.

The breed of horses called Morgan
horses originated in the United States,
says the New York Sun This distin-
cuisines it from practically all other rec
ognized breeds of domestic livestock, and
this distinction, wholly apart from any
matter of sentiment, has had an inn
portant bearing on its history The
breed originated in single stallion called
from his owner "the Justin Morgan"
foaled about 1880 and very probably at
West Springfield, Mass On the side of
his sire the stallion is believed to have
largely thoroughbred. On the side of
his dam he is believed to have been
largely Arab At two years of age he
was brought to Randolph, VT, and since
that time Vermont has been considered
the home of the breed OF course the
first generation of horses descended from
the Justin Morgan carried one half of
his blood, and with few exceptions the
third generation carried but one fourth,
but such was the prepotency of the jus
tin Morgan that two or even three out.
crosses of foreign blood did not seem
to prevent his type and qualities from
asserting themselves and predominating
to an astonishing degree in his descend
ants. Ii was this prepotency, shared
also by his immediate descendants, that
gave to Vermont a number OF closely
related and similar horses, and made the
breed an established fact The inter.
breeding of these descendants, not con.
tinued outcrossing, perpetuated the
breed. This, in brief, is the origin of a
breed whose name is familiar to every
American.
The Morgan is small horse. In well
bred and typical specimens, the height
averages somewhere around l4h hands
The weight, however, is great for the
height, and Morgan horse of l4H hands
might well be expected to weigh 1000
pounds. The speed of the Morgan, as is
obvious from the combination of small
stature with considerable weight, is not
that of track performer, When fol-
lowing the Civil war the fashions for
taller horses and fast trotters became
prevalent, the horse dealers, the sports.
men and those who called themselves
breeders turned to the Morgan as the
horse that possessed every desirable quail
ity except height and track speed, and
since then the attempt has been almost
continuous to make the Morgan larger
and faster animal
Americans had no other breed entirely
their own. There was no American
precedent to work by There were no
Morgans in Europe except one pair
owned by Napoleoi III. and few taken
to England by men who appreciated the
high intelligence, the beauty and the
phenomenal endurance of the Morgan
and desired to cross them with English
stock. Except for that part of Canada
just north of the Vermont line, the Unit.
ed States was the only country in which
Morgans were bred. With material ex-
clusively American and with talent ex-
clusively American, the breeders Of Nor
gans undertook the work of improving"
the breed by making it larger and faster.
With all Difference to those who believe
that any real Improvement has been
achieved, the better opinion of intelligent
and impartial critics is that the attempt
has been failure. Worse than that,
the extent to which the attempt at
improvement has been carried on. has
left but little Morgan stock that is even
approximately pure bred and typical IL
has always been easy for Americans to
improve their herds Of cattle, their hoeks
of sheep and their horses other than
the Morgans by sending to Europe and
buying from those who are real breeders
the choicest specimens of live stock
In the case OF the Morgans, this sim
pie avenue was blocked, and 1t is this
circumstance, no doubt. that has played
an important part in the history Of the
Morgan breed Had the Morgan breed
been cultivated by the methodieal. pa.
tient and careful breeders Of Europe.
our American breeders of Morgans would
have learned. before disaster was at their
heels, that the Morgan breed was, like
every other breed, a definite and fixed
thing thing possessing individualities
and limitations and that as long as the
breed retained its character as a breed
it could not be changed into raee-horses
or horses of anything but small size.
The time has now arrived when con-
siderable number of Morgan enthusiasts
are willing to accept these facts and
abide by them. With the acceptance OF
these facts and with enough of the typi-
cal and approximately pure bred Nor
gans left, the perpetuation Of the breed
is possible.
Some seven or eight years ago the
late Redfeld Proctor, United States SEN
ator from Vermont, an admirer of the
Morgan breed, realizing that the Nor
gans were fast becoming extinct through
reckless and mscientiflc breeding meth
DDS, succeeded in having the United
States department of agriculture under
take what he intended should be the
preservation of the breed. The record of
the work at the departments expert
ment station in the line Of breeding Nor
gan horses at Weybridge, VT, is set
forth in the departments circulars 1877,
published in 1906, and 1888. published in
1910, Senator Proctor did not live to
supervise the work, and it is the belief
OF some who knew him well that the
methods now employed by the govern
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