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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



land ponies, &c., &c., are all derived from one source — 

 the single pair preserved at the Flood. lufidels, who 

 deny the truths of the Bible, or the accuracy of in- 

 spired writers, may catch wild horses in Arabia, Persia, 

 India, or Africa, so as to solve the question at issue by 

 other means ; but Christians are driven to no such 

 miserable shitis, for man once in possession of this 

 invaluable servant, it is manifest he never would lose 

 sight of him, in climates where he could live. Profane 

 history may be silent for a time, but from the days of 

 Noah downwards the horse has lived in a domesticated 

 state with man. Among the Assyrians, Babylonians, 

 Egyptians, and early nations of antiquity, he appears 

 to have occupied as prominent a place, judging from 

 the sculptures of Nineveh, Babylon, Thebes, &c., and 

 other relics handed down to us, as he does at the pre- 

 sent day, and in all likelihood will continue to do so to 

 the end of time, independent of " iron-ways" and steam 

 locomotion, which are annually giving rise to increased 

 opposition to his usefulness. 



The individual breed preserved by Noah, however, at 

 the Deluge, is a question involving more controversy ; 

 but the almost unanimous conclusion of every age has 

 pointed to the blood horse, while this conclusion is now 

 being forcibly corroborated by the sculptures lately and 

 still being dug from the ruins of the oriental cities 

 already referred to. The language of Job again (xxxix. 

 19, 25) is unmistakably applied to this noble animal, 

 for to no other breed could he address himself in 

 the same strong terms. No doubt the language 

 is poetical ; but the poet, who was not only 

 inspired, but learned in all the wisdom of the 

 Egyptians and Chaldeans, had obviously hiseye, not upon 

 the far-famed descendants of the steed which carried 

 Mohammed from Medina, such not being in existence 

 for upwards of 2,000 years afterwards, but the breed 

 (and in all likelihood purer breed, as vveby-and-by shall 

 see) from which they had sprung ; in other words, the 

 facts of the case, the blood-horse himself as he existed in 

 the days of the patriarch. 



To uphold the standard of this unrivalled breed, we 

 may further observe that — granting that physical cir- 

 cumstances before the Flood were similar to what they 

 have been since, producing similar effects, and that there 

 were consequently as great a variety of antediluvian 

 breeds of horses as there has been since — the probability 

 is in favour of Noah selecting from among them that 

 breed nearest the original type when the horse came 

 from his Maker's hands in a perfect state. Indeed, 

 when we take into consideration the fact that the preser- 

 vation of man and beast was the work of an overruling 

 Providence, the conclusion becomes manifest that the 

 breed, when it descended from the ark, was nearly as 

 pure as when it left Paradise, if not equally so. 



The great diversity of breeds which have since taken 

 place, or which have sprung from one original pair, is 

 the result of physical causes, natural and artificial — 

 natural, such as the breeding from unhealthy or im- 

 properly-formed animals, or the influence of climate ; and 

 artificial, such as management at the hands of man. To 

 some one or other of these causes, or combinations of 

 them, are to be attributed the numerous breeds of horses 

 now inhabiting the different kingdoms of the world, of 

 which this country probably exhibits a greater variety 

 than any other — the blood-horse, the dray-horse, and 

 Shetland pony being conspicuous and extreme examples. 



Although our limits prevent us from entering upon 

 the practical details of this division of our subject at any 

 length, it will yet be necessary to cast the eye hurriedly 

 across them, in order to be able to enter more success- 

 fully upon the most important division of it, viz., the 

 improvement of breeds ; for " as to find out the seat of 

 the disease is to effect half the cure," so, in accordance 



with the old proverb, if we can form but a general idea 

 of how the huge old English cart or dray-horse and 

 Highland shelty have been produced from the blood- 

 horse, it will be a more easy task to arrive at correct 

 conceptions relative to that reformation of breeds which 

 the peculiar exigencies of the times demand. 



For a long period after the Flood, the horse appears 

 to have been used only for military, hunting, and plea- 

 sure purposes ; and to this day, in the East, these are 

 almost the exclusive branches of usefulness to which his 

 strength is yet applied ; for throughout Turkey, Egypt, 

 Persia, Tartary, Sec, oxen perform the principal amount 

 of labour connected with agriculture, both ploughing 

 and carting, while the camel supplies any balance want- 

 ing in connection with commerce. It is only in modern 

 Europe and America that the horse has saperseded the 

 ox in the cultivation of the soil ; for at no great date, 

 war, hunting, and pleasure were also the only purposes 

 to which he was applied in England herself. 



This practice must necessarily have exercised an un- 

 favourable influence upon the physical character of the 

 horse, and the stocking of the world with his offspring, 

 especially when we take into consideration the warlike 

 reputation of the period, for the best animals must 

 either have been slain in battle, or bred from after they 

 were disabled from carrying arms, and hence with con- 

 stitutions and health impaired ; while the awful calami- 

 ties resulting from war and the famines with which 

 Oriental nations were so frequently visited, according 

 to sacred history, must have produced an equal, if not 

 greater elTect ; so that by the time of Mohammed a very 

 considerable deterioration must have taken place ; while 

 modern history proves that the Arabs, with all their at- 

 tention have failed, generally speaking, to maintain this 

 level, the horse having deteriorated under their manage- 

 ment. 



This deterioration in the East has in all probability 

 been greater since the downfal of the Assyrian, Baby- 

 lonian, Median, and Persian kingdoms of sacred writ 

 than previously ; the irrigation, and indeed the entire 

 agricultural resources of these kingdoms, having since 

 then been neglected; large areas, which once yielded an 

 abundance for man and beast, being now a barren desert, 

 or only yielding herbage capable of supporting a stunted 

 race of horses. The testimony of Xenophon, who lived 

 about a thousand years prior to Mohammed, relative 

 to the cavalry of Media, points to heavier and more 

 powerful horses thau Arabia can produce, or any 

 Oriental state ; and the sculptures of Nineveh in some 

 measure confirm what this celebrated writer says ; for 

 the Assyrian artist must have had his eye on a more 

 powerful race of blood horses than are now to be found 

 in the Sultan's cavalry of Bagdad, or, we may perhaps 

 say, any stud of blood horses in the world ; while the 

 description given by Job, who lived a thousand years 

 prior to Xenophon, has especial reference to the 

 strength of the horse. Now, it is hardly possible that 

 a decrease should have taken place in the former period 

 equal to what has been experienced in the latter ; for 

 between Job and Xenophon those kingdoms were pro- 

 gressing in science ; and therefore it is not likely that an 

 animal occupying so important a place as the horse 

 did would have been neglected, while between Xenophon 

 and Mohammed and the present time the vials of jus- 

 tice have been poured ou.t upon them, no domesticated 

 creature being able to escape the consequences. But in 

 the absence of more circumstantial evidence relative to 

 the former period, since the deterioration during the 

 latter cannot be denied, or rather is confirmed by 

 modern history, the opposite conclusion would only 

 point to a higher degree of qualifications on the part of 

 the blood horse originally than we have even supposed. 

 No doubt it may be said that the Assyrians and Medes 



