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TRAINING OF HORSES.—The following letter was received froma regular 
and valued correspondent of this Department. It inculcates valuable 
lessons in the rearing and training of young horses, the proper mode of 
feeding, and systematic gentleness in handling and teaching. The value 
of the horse depends so much upon his early training that I give place 
to this letter because of the valuable lessons it teaches :—{ Commissioner 
of Agriculture. ’ , 
HACIENDA SALUDA, 
Greenville County, S. C., December 24, 1875. 
Srr: On the 11th December last I purchased two more colts born 4th and 7th May, 
1874—both from the same horse—their mothers sound brood-mares of this county. . 
The colts were weaned at seven months old, wintered on corn-fodder and clover-hay, 
with two quarts per day of corn-meal, moistened with warm water and a little salt. 
They ran out all winter in a 20-acre hilly lot of ground, with steep gravelly paths to 
water. At night they nestled together on a warm littered-stable wooden floor, coats 
cleaned and feet trimmed. 
In March, as soon as they began to get a little pasture, they were haltered and tied 
up in their stalls. In June they were bridled, surcingled, and ecruppered. In two 
days running loose the bit worked in the mouth and crupper at the root of the tail in 
such a way as to make them hold up their heads and do all the kicking natural to 
youth and inexperience. They were then learned to stand tied in this way for three 
hours each day for a week, another week with wagon-harness, collars, breeching, and 
chain-traces danglizg about their hind legs sufficient to teach them patience. 
In July they were driven double up and down hill; then hitched single to a horse- 
rake, pulling hay together; then to a little cart, one ahead of the other, hauling light 
loads of hay to the barn, at which work they were prepared for the road as a tandem 
team ; then put to a small garden-plow, single and double. Sweating cleansed their 
bowels, gave them a fine appetite, and made them grow rapidly in size and strength. 
In August they were taught to shake hands before going to supper, by offering one 
fore foot. Driven double out on the road to visit a steam-sawmill, heard the noise of 
machinery, and became familiar with the whistle of the locomotive. During Septem- 
ber they carried sixty-pound boys every day for two hours up and down the road inside 
the front gate in a slow walk, then in a fast walk up and down hill, thenin a slow 
trot and fast trot on a level; this kept them a little thin in the hot season, but they 
were growing at the rate of half an inch per month, having reached the height of 4 
feet 94 inches, keeping nearly the same size. 
In October they were allowed a vacation of two weeks, in a third crop of clover, a 
foot high, with an additional allowance of salt to prevent slobbering; before being 
set free in the mornings, they were requested to bow their heads to the ground in sup- 
plication, which they soon learned to do with profound understanding. They had not 
been in clover long before they filled, and lay down on their mother earth and went 
to sleep. 
In the last week in October they were hitched to the Baltimore wagon, and driven 
eight miles, working well up and down hill, and on a level showed how well they had 
been trained to trot by the boys. They were now turned on Kentueky blue-grass a 
half a foot high. At eighteen months old they were hitched to the high Greenville 
road-wagon, and visited the city, to and fro fourteen miles. On this drive they showed 
the result of a home education, crossing streams and bridges and passing strangers 
with a grace and beauty equal to colts of their ageof any other country. 
Amazon (named after the South American valley) is the favorite. 
Tecla (named after the fair maid of Iconium, referred to in Apocryphal New Testa- 
ment, who was persecuted without mercy by magistrates of antiquity,) is the pet. 
She shows pluck on the road,and traveled the fourteenth mile with much spirit, 
though she may not prove so fast as Amazon. 
The importation and employment of jacks injures and weakens the race of horses. 
A young horse, with elder brothers and sisters mules, is often abused for stupidity, or a 
wild vicious character which turns his heels against mankind. The well-trained, pure 
blooded horse, is now so valuable, and the mule comparatively so cheap, that the 
horse is being destroyed by the jackass. 
Very respectfully, 
LARDNER GIBBON. 
OUR SILK MANUFACTURE.—From returns received by the Silk Asso- 
ciation of America from the silk mauufactories of the country, the fol- 
lowing statistics have been compiled. The total value of our domestic 
manufacture, during 1874, was $20,082,482, viz: tram and organzine, 
375,659 pounds, $2,911,055; spun silk, 140,000jjpounds, $800,000 ; 
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