386 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



How to Save a Drowning Horse. 

 By Solon Robinson. 



[Chicago Pravrie Farmer, 4:91-92; Apr., 1844] 



[February 19, 1844] 



To the Editors of the Prairie Farmer: Cruelty to any 

 animal is a sin — and cruelty to so valuable an animal as 

 the horse, is a sin of such magnitude as to require the 

 severest reprehension. 



Now gentlemen, I put the question to you, and through 

 you to those who are guilty, if a man is in possession of 

 a secret remedy for saving the life of such an animal, and 

 fails, neglects, or refuses to communicate it to the pub- 

 lic, is he not guilty of this sin? During the last week, 

 I had the misfortune to get a pair of horses into the 

 Calumet river, by breaking through the ice, and thus los- 

 ing one of them. 



Since the accident, I have been tantalized with the in- 

 formation communicated to me by at least half a dozen 

 individuals, that I might have saved my horse with the 

 greatest ease — "if I had only known how." No doubt of 

 it. But if they knew how, why in the name of benevo- 

 lence did they not publish the fact to the world long since, 

 that I might with ten thousand others learn how; and 

 thereby not only save my valuable horse, of which I was 

 doatingly fond, but also save me the horror and wretched- 

 ness of seeing an excellent animal perish in agony before 

 my eyes, without being able to render the least assistance. 



The only excuse offered is, "Why, I thought everybody 

 knew it." It is too much the case, that we neglect to pub- 

 lish our own knowledge of small matters, and content 

 ourselves with the same excuse. I pray for a radical 

 change in this disposition, particularly among farmers. 

 Let us be assured that there is no fact, however trifling, 

 that is useful to ourselves, but what would be useful to 

 others, "if they only knew how." And be assured there 

 are others that would be glad to learn. 



Now the manner of getting a horse out of the water 

 onto the ice, as I now learn for the first time in my life, 



