136 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



be set on a neck of good length and finely arched crest. The shoulder should 

 be thick at the point, strong at the top, oblique and long, with high withers. 

 The chest should be deep, low down between the arms. The barrel deep, 

 round, and not tucked up in the flank, should carry out level on the rump, 

 ■with the tail set on high, and slightly arching. The back should be straight, 

 firm, and strong, joined to the rump by an even mass of muscle, with power- 

 ful loin, and long, broad quarters and thigh, well muscled down toward the 

 hock. The leg should be broad and flat with long, strong joints, bone as 

 dense as ivory, sinews like steel, short, slanting, elastic pastern, and round, 

 open-heeled hoof, dark colored, fine grained and smooth. The horse's wind 

 must be strong and his digestion perfect. He should be bay, brown, chest- 

 nut, black, dark-gray or roan; bay is the best of all colors, not fading in the 

 sun; and he should be free from objectionable white markings. He may be 

 taller and heavier than this ideal, but not smaller nor lighter. While strength 

 is not always governed by size, there are times in almost all farm work when 

 the dead weight thrown into the collar is of quite as much value as nervous 

 force. His carriage must be lofty and gay, his form smooth and shapely all 

 around, and his appearance attractive at rest or in motion. He should be 

 handsome, and be proud of it. He should impress you, not as specially 

 adapted to one thing, the race course, the plow, the heavy load, but as suited 

 to the various uses to which the farmer may put him — to pull the plow, to 

 feel at home on the reaper or threshing machine, trot off smartly with the 

 family carriage or the little road wagon, walk briskly with the load of hay to 

 the barn, or of grain to market, or carry a man proudly on his back. 



The will to do depends on what we may call the horse's moral qualities or 

 instincts. He must possess intelligence, courage, be easily controllable, never 

 skittish, nervous, or flighty. A cowardly horse, like a cowardly man, that 

 smells the battle afar off and stops there, is good for nothing. With gentle 

 disposition, fine tempermeut, and sagacity, there must be docility, patience, 

 spirit, and resoluteness 



The most valuable gait for the farm horse, as, indeed, for any horse used 

 for economic purposes, is the walk ; and it is the most neglected. The lazy, 

 dull, sluggish, slow walker has no place on the farm. A careful estimate of 

 the time spent by the farm team on the walk, at the plow, harrow, seeder, 

 planter, cultivator, reaper, mower, or the farm wagon, will prove the value of 

 a fast walker. Only in the family carriage, single buggy, empty wagon, or 

 under the saddle, does the farm horse go off the walk, and here he can rest 

 without so much loss if he walks rapidly. A fast walker will go five miles an 

 hour, a slow walker three — a difference of 40%. Compute the loss of time and 

 money, especially in hurrying times like haying or harvest, when the work of 

 several men depends on the movement of a single team, or when you are cul- 

 tivating short rows of corn or raking hay, where the horse must turn about 

 every few minutes, and you will lose all patience with the horse that considers 

 a gait of more than two miles an hour, or more than four turnings about 

 between breakfast and dinner, unorthodox. Almost everything is going now 

 at steam engine rates, and the horse must approach this rate of speed to be 

 serviceable or bring the cash. 



While the horse thus described is the ideal farm horse, he is also in great 

 demand in the cities, at big prices, to draw the gentleman's family carriage, 

 and is known as the "coacAer" or '^2^ark horse." 



The requirements of the park horse are thus described by Dr. McMouagle : 



''A park horse should have a great deal of blood, be of good action, and be 



