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Show AAorgon Horse Typieoliy Amenmn & . . Government Runs Unique Breeding Farm in Vermont By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WASHINGTON, D. C Some time ago the world was startled star-tled to learn from Pravda, the official communist party news-' news-' paper in Moscow, that it was a Russian who discovered "wireless" "wire-less" (as radio was called in its youth), and as if that weren't enough, it was announced later by the same authority that the electric light, which poor Thomas Edison certainly thought he had something to do with, was likewise a Russian invention. If I ever read, as some day I fear I shall, that ice-cream sodas and hot-dogs were first discovered on a pleasant afternoon by some mysterious Muscovite as he sat dreaming on his back steppes, I shall announce that bortsch and vodka are American products and that the Volga boatmen were simply a prodigal local of the CIO maritime union. Mcanwhilp. however T am re-? V H X ' -2 - i minded by the department of agriculture agri-culture that one HOW TO CELEBRATE A BIRTHDAY . . . Triplets Maureen, Michael and Michele Yosco of Flushing, N. Y., got all dressed up to celebrate their first birthday. They also had three lovely cakes. Put them all together clean clothes, gooey cake and inquisitive one-year-olds aud they spell washday for mother. r x 1 f thing which is as A m e r i can as America and which no foreigner for-eigner had better bet-ter try to appro-priate appro-priate as a home - grown product, is the Morgan horse. Justin Morgan is immortalized in bronze and you can see him today standing viewed the Green Mountain boys when they came back from the War of 1812. The author has Joel say about Justin afterward: "He was just a little work horse that cleared the fields and helped Vermont grow ap. Come to think of it, he's like us. He's American . . . that's what he is, American." The Morgan horse helped other states and territories grow up, too, for their equine brotherhood went West with the emigrating farmers, and more than one American soldier sol-dier was proudly mounted on a Morgan as he went into battle. General Gen-eral Custer rode off on a Morgan horse when he went out to fight the Indians, a whole regiment of cavalry cav-alry had Morgan mounts in the Civil War. Breeding Program Is Unt'er Way Now, "The Morgan horse breeders" breed-ers" Dr. McFee of the animal husbandry hus-bandry division of the department of agriculture told me, "have given more attention to the traits desirable desir-able in a riding horse." (Forty descendants de-scendants of Justin became famous as trotters. Some of you remember such names as Ethan Allen, Black Hawk and Dan Patch.) At the Morgan farm today usually about forty-five horses are under test. According to the official description, descrip-tion, the breeding program there calls for "the measurement of each y vangster at one year of age. at tv o years, and at three years. All are trained under saddle and in harness and are put through controlled con-trolled performance and endurance trials when about three years old. Baukhage on his Postal before the main stable of the United States Morgan horse farm which covers about .,000 acres of rolling, wooded coun-ry coun-ry two miles north of Middlebury, n. The original Tarm of 400 acres was presented to the United States department of agriculture agricul-ture by Joseph Battell. Colonel Battell had long been an admirer ad-mirer and breeder of Morgan horses, and had founded the American Morgan register. The farm was established in 1907. The area was increased by an additional gift of about 35 acres by Colonel Battell in 1908, and by purchase of about 550 acres from Middlebury College in 1917. The land, underlain with limestone, is well adapted to the production of horses. In the selection of foundation breeding stock, and in planning subsequent matings, emphasis was placed upon size and quality, and ability to perform the three gaits, walk, trot and canter. These points E v-,,""55f ' yg-- y ' true vw- ! r I l r. k 'J .Morgan brood mares, with their foals, run In one of the pastures of the department of agriculture's V. S. Morgan horse farm near Middlebury, Vt. continue to be emphasized. Also, every effort has been made to preserve pre-serve adequate muscling and depth of body and to preserve and enhance en-hance desirable temperament. The stocky stallion, original of the post-mortem effigy was named for its owner, a singing schoolmaster, schoolmas-ter, was foaled in 1733 and died in 1321. He (I mean the stallion not the schoolmaster) had a romantic career and he is the progenitor of the breed, which as the department of agriculture says, is one of the few breeds of horses developed in the United States. Justin was a "small, active animal of great power and endurance, with the reputation rep-utation of being able to outwalk, outrun, and outpull any other horse In Vermont and the neighboring states." He had the power to transmit these qualities, says the depart- The data thus obtained form the permanent records of the individuals. individ-uals. They are used also in studies of sire and dam inheritance and as criteria for formulation the station's sta-tion's breeding program. For the tests of three-year olds the department's depart-ment's horse specialists have devised de-vised specific trials to measure the walking and trotting gaits and the horses' endurance in harness and under the saddle." Always versatile, the Morgan was as chipper when he went to the meeting house on Sunday pulling the surrey with the fringe on the top as it was weekdays when it could drag a log to the sawmill which often took a team of its big brothers to budge. And where buggies are still used, you'll often find a Morgan between the shafts. He is used on the trail, too, for bis forte these days seems to be under the saddle. The Morgan horses have found homes far from the shadow of their native Green Mountains and today the stock probably is increasing more rapidly in California than anywhere in the East. I regret to say that on my last trip to Vermont, Ver-mont, this summer, though mighty Mount Mansfield looked up at the heavens with the same stern profile that it did when I first panted, pack-laden to its top, the maple-sugar maple-sugar tasted as good (though it cost too much), the mist still held the peak of Killingon as gently as ever in its graceful fingers. But I missed the quick tattoo of those small strong hooves on the hard highways, high-ways, and the silhouette of an arched neck against the sky above a mountain pasture. I'm glad that Uncle Sam is doing his part, in the shadow of Justin's statue, to perpetuate the breed that is "just like us," as Joel said: American. rnent, to his three known sons and the United States government Is doing its share to perpetuate the characteristics for which his ilk Is known: "beauty, easy keeping, soundness, endurance, and spirit coupled with gentleness." The first time I ever went to Vermont Ver-mont I was attracted to these plucky little horses. Later I learned more about the Morgan horse. He vei;:hi I'T.s than 1.000 pounds, he Is not over 14 hand;i high, round barrelled, bar-relled, with powerful chest and leg muscles, a proud head and o stout heart. He h-s done a lot to develop the st:ite i:t Vermont and his ud-venturei ud-venturei h;ivn carried him far afield. In a fictioni'd put reniaik-ubly reniaik-ubly iieeiir.'ite slory of "Justin I," Mur Huei Ms Il'-riiy tells how dm boy Joel, who "nentli-d" Jm.lm in n r-.lt. Inter lost tr.sek ,f hi;,, ,,, finally found him liKain lind how Jo'i, ri his cavnliy uniform Willi n I'f'g of evergreen In bin h'-hnet, lat proudly on his diminutive mount when pesl'I'-nt Monro ri- |
