MORGAN HORSES. The Morgan horse, which probably owes its principal celebrity to the Black Hawk strain (see cut), and his descendants have years since passed the zenith of their popularity. Admirable as these horses were for light driving, their small size and light weight was against them, and in speed, except in rare instances, they could not compete with the descendants of Messenger and other. first class thoroughbred trotting sires. For draft teams they were found not to be of value for the reason heretofore assigned, the want of size. The stock was widely disseminated especially, in the Northwest, and while they added style and vigor to the common stock of the country, the decrease, in the size of the get has rendered undersized horse§ much more common than formerly. Farmers were not slow to see this, and hence they vvere in as much haste to get rid of the blood as they were in the first place to breed to it. It is perhaps to be regretted that more of this stock could not have been kept pure, since their ambition, handsome form, docility, courage, and great style would have made them most acceptable horses, for pony phtons, for ladies and children and light driv ing on the road. The animal from which sprung
the Morgan horses, is pretty generally conceded to have been the horse Justin Morgan, so named from the gentleman who bought him at two years old in 1795. He is recorded to have been foaled in 1793, and to have been sired by True Britain, who was sired by imported Traveler. The dam of the Justin Morgan horse is reported to have been a Wildair mare, sired by Diamond, and he by Wildair. The horse Justin Morgan was a dark bay, with black mane and tail, and without white hairs; he was about fourteen hands high, weighing about 950 pounds, and with coarse, heavy, but straight ma,ne and tail, docile, obedi ent, spirited, and a fleet runner at short dis tances. He was not a fast trotter but an honest one, going in four minutes to the mile easily, and as honest at a dead pull as he was exhaustless on the road. The most noted of his descendants were Black Hawk, though all of his get seem to have been imbued with wonderful stamina,spirit, and beauty of form.