HORSES AND MULES. 291 



like a board, wliich you may saw, cut, burn, or nail at your 

 pleasure. Nor have you a right to sell a horse to one whom 

 you know to be a hard, cruel master. When you sell never 

 cover up or hide any defects ; state fairly the good and bad 

 qualities of your horse, and set your price; if bought on your 

 terms, no warranty is necessary, and no lawsuifs will follow. 

 To sell an unsound horse for sound is a transaction of the same 

 nature as passing a counterfeit note, and no upright man, if he 

 looks at the subject rightly, will do it. The good points of a 

 draught horse are : large feet and legs ; square shoulders ; a 

 broad, muscular neck, strong and thick at the junction with the 

 shoulders ; a round, wide breast ; short legs ; short upright pas- 

 tern ; a short back ; large, broad hindquarters ; a short thigh, 

 with strong muscles ; (if the muscles here are weak and thin, 

 the horse is defective.) Such a horse as we have described is 

 only fit for draught. As most farm operations require a steady, 

 slow movement, a heavy team is better than a light one. A 

 horse weighing seven hundred might be just as strong as one 

 weighing fourteen hundred, and yet he will not be able to 

 haul a load with the same ease, and would need a stronger 

 hames, and stronger whiffletree. A light liorse, drawing a 

 heavy load, must move quick and expend great muscular force; 

 while the heavy horse, hauling the same load, does it largely by 

 the momentum of his body. The momentum of a heavy team 

 tends to keep a load in motion ; whereas a light team must do 

 it with their muscles, which is very exhausting. As to mares or 

 geldings for teams, a recent writer states, that when he had only 

 a few acres of land to plow, he found a team of good mares the 

 most profitable. He had them drop their foal before they were 

 needed for spring labor, or else after their spring labor had been 

 done, and thus got two good colts annaally. which in good part 

 paid the expense of keeping the team. We should say that such a 



