SECTION rV.— ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 



CHAPTER XXX 

 FARM ANIMALS: I. THE HORSE 



By farm animals we mean horses, mules, cattle, sheep, 

 goats, swine, and poultry. These animals have been known 

 and used by man for many centuries. At first they existed as 

 wild animals. As man found use for them he gradually 

 tamed and developed them. There are many different kinds 

 of each, brought to their present state of development by the 

 nature of the climate in which they live, the use to which 

 they have been put by man, selection and improvement by 

 breeders, and various other causes. 



The Horse. — The discoveries of geologists tell us that 

 horses have developed from queer animals which lived ages 

 ago. These animals had five toes on each foot and in size 

 were about as large as a fox-terrier, but as ages went by 

 they were modified by the climatic and food conditions 

 until there was developed an animal much like our present 

 horse. The splint bones which are often seen on the legs of 

 horses are the remains of what were once toes. The color of 

 the prehistoric horse is thought to have been striped, some- 

 what like the zebra. 



The horse was originally a native of Central Asia. When 

 man began to use and breed horses he modified them very 



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