Volume III. and subsequent volumes were compiled under its authority.

Questions of disputed pedigrees and other such issues affecting breeding and the record of pedigrees were decided by a Board of Censors appointed by this association; and, aside from its usefulness in connection with the “Trotting Register,” it contributed largely to the advancement and encouragement of breeding by inaugurating colt stakes, and other stakes designed more especially to attract the breeder than the professional campaigner.

Before the third volume was through the press the need of some measure for restricting registration became apparent to Mr. Wallace. The economics of the “Register” demanded it, but beyond this the need of systematizing and establishing a specific breed called for some definition as to what rightfully belonged to that breed. Up to this time the only rule was the indefinite provision that “anything well related to trotting blood” might be acceptable as eligible by the compiler of the “Register.” The problem that confronted those who took a broad and comprehensive view was to educate public opinion up to that point where the possibility of establishing a breed of trotters would be appreciated. As early as April, 1878, _Wallace’s Monthly_ strongly urged the necessity of a standard, and this was the first suggestion of one that had been made. At the November meeting of the National Association of Trotting Horse Breeders that year the Board of Censors in their report presented a letter from Mr. Wallace advising the adoption of a standard, a recommendation which the Board indorsed. Meanwhile the matter was being agitated and discussed in _Wallace’s Monthly_, and affairs were gradually shaping for action. In the March, 1879, number of the _Monthly_ a standard formulated by certain Kentucky breeders and forwarded by Major H. C. McDowell was printed and commented upon. It was fair on its face, but under discussion its weak points were made clear. For instance, its fourth rule made standard “Any mare the dam of any mare or stallion that has produced or sired a horse, mare, or gelding with a record of 2:30.” It was pointed out that under this rule the celebrated English thoroughbred mare Queen Mary would become a standard trotter, for her son, the race horse Bonnie Scotland, had sired the trotter Scotland. As other provisions made the sisters and brothers of standard animals standard, the defects of the Kentucky standard were made patent, and the Breeders’ Association failed to approve it. Instead, at a meeting at the Everett House, New York, November 19, 1879, the standard as printed on pages 519-20, in the framing of which Mr. Wallace and General B. F. Tracy did the active work, was unanimously adopted.

Under this standard the work of compiling Volume IV., which involved bringing forward animals registered in preceding volumes, that met its requirements, and numbering stallions, was carried on.

Meanwhile, some Kentucky gentlemen failed to acquiesce in the standard decision, and had, or believed they had, other grievances against the compiler of the “Register.” They proceeded to plan to control the “Register.” but as in the last chapter of this work Mr. Wallace gives full details of this and subsequent battles for the control of registration, this history need not be here repeated.

In the meantime the breeding interest was enjoying remarkable prosperity, and this was reflected upon and through the “Trotting Register” and _Wallace’s Monthly_. In 1882 Volume IV. was published, Volume V. in 1886, and Volume VI. in 1887, these containing about 6,000 pedigrees each.