the land are the breeders, as our recent war of the rebellion
testified. The war of 1812, the Mexican war of 1847, and the war of
1861 each called for horses at a moment's notice, and our farmers
supplied them, destroying foundation bloods for recuperation. From
1861 to 1863 the noble patriotism of our farmers caused them to vie
with each other as to who should give the best and least money to help
the government; and cannot our government now do something for the
strength and sinew of the land, the farmers?

I was dealing in horses, more or less, from 1861 to 1863 (as I had
been before and long after), and many was the magnificent horse I saw
led out by the farmer for the government, at a minimum price, when,
previous to 1861, $400, $500, and even $600 was refused for the same
animals. Horses that would prove a headlight to any gentleman's coach
in the city, and others that would trot off fourteen to sixteen miles
an hour on the road as easy as they would eat their oats, went into
the cavalry or artillery or to baggage trains. What were left for
recuperation at the close of the war were mongrels from Canada or the
Indian and wild lands of the West, and such other lazy brutes as our
good farmers would not impose upon the government with or later were
condemned by the army buyers. These were largely of the Abdallah type
of horse, noted for coarseness, homeliness, also soft and lazy
constitutions. No one disputes the brute homeliness of the Abdallah
horse, and in this the old and trite saying of "Like begets like" is
exemplified in descendants, with which our country is flooded. The
speed element of which we boast was left in our mares of Arabian blood
through Clay and Morgan, but was so limited in numbers as to be an
apology for our present time standard in the breeding of fancy horses.
Knowing that Abdallah blood produced no speed, and being largely
ignorant as to the breeding of our mares, which were greatly scattered