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since, an English gentleman had a fine hunting horse, 

 that would carry his rider over a five-barred gate with 

 ease ; but the tail was not in fashion, it was not carried 

 to suit him, and he had him nicked ; the result was, that 

 when he got well, he could scarcely carry him over two 

 bars. " Thus," said he " I spoiled a good horse, and no 

 wonder ; for the operation weakened his loins, a result 

 that might have been reasonably expected from the sever- 

 ing of two such muscles." 



Race horses, we believe, are never docked or nicked. 

 Their muscular powers are all wanted, and that too, where 

 nature has placed them. The hair of the tails is cropped, 

 as any one may see in the fine prints that accompany the 

 English sporting journals ; but the man who should un- 

 dertake by the use of the knife, and the division of tendons, 

 to improve nature, would justly be considered insane. The 

 same argument that prevents the mutilation of the race 

 horse, should prevent that of the carriage or farm horse. 

 The trifling inconvenience the tail occasions when in the 

 harness, should be tolerated for the sake of the greater 

 beauty of the animal. 



PURGING HORSES. 



C. W. Gooch, of Virginia, writing to the editor of the 

 Southern Planter, says : " The ordinary means of pur- 

 ging a sick horse are so slow in operating, that, in many 

 cases, they do no good. I send you a very simple recipe, 

 with which some of your readers may not be acquainted, 

 which I have never known to fail, and regard as the best 

 and simplest. I saw it many years ago in the American 

 Farmer, and have tested it : 



" Take a piece of chalk about the size of a walnut, 

 pound it in a mortar, or wrap a rag around it and reduce 

 it to powder with a hammer, or anything else ; put the 



