256 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



day from the time lie will eat them, and consequently comes 

 forward so rapidly that he is put to racing at two years of 

 age. In no respect do American farmers make a greater 

 mistake than in withholding an abundance of the most nutri- 

 tious food from their growing stock, of whatever kind, as 

 if their chief object were to dwarf all the vital organs and 

 reduce to its minimum the digestive power, when they ought 

 to assist nature every way towards a speedy development of the 

 perfect, full-sized, vigorous animal. 



Finally, we must have better educated horses. It is no 

 longer necessary, and therefore it is wrong to use vicious, 

 unmanageable, dangerous animals, since it has been abun- 

 dantly demonstrated that every young horse may be so perfectly 

 subdued and so nicely trained as to perform, up to the extent 

 of his ability, exactly what an intelligent and reasonable driver 

 may demand. How greatly would the sum total of human 

 happiness and comfort, to say nothing of safety, be increased, 

 if our horses were only free from those troublesome and often 

 alarming tricks, which arc the result either of their ignorance 

 or their insubordination. 



One horse is almost perfect, but lie pulls away when hitched 

 with any thing less than a cable ; another is very smart and 

 kind while you have hold of him, but if left for a moment to 

 himself, springs into a gallop and leaves you alone; this horse 

 runs away if his tail gets over the line, which it is very apt to 

 do, and that one, if any thing touches his hind legs; here is 

 one of the \ery best, but goes when and where he chooses ; 

 and closely related to him is another, all right if you can only 

 manage to tumble into the wagon before he starts ; this one 

 kicks, that ones bites, and another strikes w r ith his fore feet. 

 One is rendered unmanageable by the sound of a gun, or steam 

 whistle, or band of music, and another is terribly afraid of a 

 locomotive, or train of cars, or even of a railroad track ; some 

 will shy at a stone, or a stump, or a white cow, or a bit of paper, 

 and others at a stage-coach, or a loaded wagon, or a wheel- 

 barrow ; one fears a robe, another an umbrella, and another his 

 own shadow, and so on and so forth. Now where is the fortu- 

 nate individual who owns a horse of any spirit, and without 

 one or more of these tricks ; and yet almost every colt may be 

 broken, in one month's time, so as to be free from every one 



