202 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No 4 



dairy counties;''^ whilst, at page 16, hesnys, ^'wiih 

 one exception, every hreed ol' ifra/.m*! cattle in the 

 three kiugdoms is reared on either bad or indiffer- 

 eiil pasjiLirage. The Durhanis are the only gra- 

 zers we ^-ossess which are reared on rich pasture. 

 This is a new variety interior to the Herelbrds, 

 though more costly to rear. It is handsome, and, 

 when supplied with rich food, the animals become 

 very fat. This race ts cmijitied to a small portion 

 of the kim^dom, and there is no prospect of its ex- 

 tending farther.''^ We have italicised the words 

 in the two sentences just quoied, which to us ap- 

 pear contradictory. What are ihe Durhanis but 

 new short-horns.^ Did not Mr. Charles Codings 

 originate the new short-horns, and did he not ori- 

 ginate them in the county of Durham? 



Our author devotes three chapters to the mount- 

 ing and arming of our cavalry, and military pun- 

 ishments. These are subjects foreign to us, yet, 

 having been a cavalry officer, as he himself in- 

 forms us, our author's opinions on them are enti- 

 tled to consideration. Indeetl, this is (he portion 

 of the work which he has evidently written con 

 amore. It is entirely free from that qnaintness 

 vvhich obscures, and senteniiousness which dis 

 joins, the sentiments of the lormer part of the 

 treatise on the horse. His sentiments on mili- 

 tary punishments are expressions of the most 

 rationally humane feelings. 



We cannot resist copying extracts from a highly 

 interesting private letter of that accomplished tra- 

 veller, Burckhardf, to Mr. Sewell, of the Veteri- 

 nary College, London, which is given in an ap- 

 pendix by uur author. It will correct manv pop- 

 ular notions respecting the numbers and character 

 of the Arabian horse. Here it is, and with it here 

 an end of the article: 



"It is a mistaken belief that Arabia is very rich 

 in horses. The breed of horses in that country is 

 limited to the extent of its fertile pasturing dis- 

 tricts, and it is in these parts only that breed pros- 

 pers, while the Bedouins, who are in possession of 

 poor ground, seldom do j)ossess any horses. We, 

 therefore, see that the trities richest in horses are 

 those who dwell com|)aratively in the fertile plain 

 of Mesopotamia, on the borders of the Euphrates, 

 and in the Syrian deserts. It is there that tlie tior- 

 Bes can feed lor several spring months upon the 

 green grass and herbs of the valleys and plains, 

 produced by the rains, which seem to be an abso- 

 lute requisite for its reacliing to its full vigor and 

 growth. Horses are much less numerous in Red- 

 jed, than in the albrementioned parts, and become 

 Bcarce the more we proceed to the south. In the 

 Kedjat, in the mountain of that country, and Irom 

 thence towards Yemen, tew horses are seen, and 

 those few are imported from the nortii. The 

 Atenne tribes of the frontiers of Syria have from 

 eight to ten thousand horses; and half that num- 

 ber belongs to other small tribes roving about in 

 the same province. The single tribe of Arabs, 

 Monteiek, in the desert watered by the Euphra- 

 tes, between Bagdat and liassora, has, at a mod- 

 erate calculation, eight thousand hor^:■es; the tribes 

 of Dhefye and Bent Thamer, in those quarters, 

 are rich in horses in proportion; while the aggre- 

 gate number of horses ol'Redjed, Diebel, Ilamac, 

 and Rasyne, viz: from near the Persian Guli; as 

 far as Medina, is at most ten thousand. The large 

 tribes on the lied Sea, between Akaba andMekka, 

 and south and south-east of Mckka as fiar us Ye- 1 



men, liave very few horses, especially those of the 

 mountains. In the eastern plains, beyond Beeche 

 and Redjan, more horses are met with. The tribe 

 of Rantaii, who live in that quarter, is celebrated 

 tor its studs, and so are the Dovvasen. The in- 

 habitants of Redjan and Yemen themselves are 

 seldom in the habit of keeping any; and I believe, 

 not Irom truth to err, in atlmitting five or six thou- 

 sand, are the liirthest number in ihe country, from 

 Akaba, on the norih point of the Red Sea, south- 

 wards to the shores of the ocean at Nadiamcnt, 

 comprising the great chain of mountains and the 

 level giound on the west of it towards the sea. 

 The hot climes of Omar are likewise said to be 

 little favorable to the race, and horses are still 

 there scarcer than they are in Yemen. In affirm- 

 ing, therelore, that tlie aggregate nuinberof horses 

 in Arabia, as bounded by the Eu[)lira!es and Syria, 

 amounts to almost fifty thousand, a number much 

 iiiliirior to that found in Eurojje or any other parts 

 of Asia upon an equal extent of ixround, I am con- 

 fident I have not underrated them. 



"The richest country in this part of the east ap- 

 |)ears to be Mesopotamia: the tribes of Curds and 

 Bedouins, in that (luarter, very likely possess more 

 horses than all the Arabian Beilonins together, for 

 the richness ot" their pastures easily [iropagates 

 their studs. The best pasturing places of Arabia 

 not only produce the greatest quantity of horses, 

 but likewise the best and most chosen breeds. 

 Thp finest Koheyls of the Khomh are met with 

 in Medjid, on tlie Euphrates, and in the Syrian 

 deserts; while in the southern parts of Arabia, and 

 especially Yemen, no good breed of horses exist 

 but those imported from the north. The Bedouins 

 up the Redjan have very lew horses, their strength 

 consistiiiij in camel riders and toot soldiers armed 

 with matchlocks only. In i he tract between Mekka 

 and Medina, between the mountains and the sea, 

 a distance of at least two hundred and sixty miles, 

 I do not believe that two iiundred horses can be 

 Ibund, and the same proportion of numbers is to 

 be remarked all along the Red Sea from Yemba 

 up to Akaba. The united army of all the south- 

 ern Wahabee chiels, whu attacked Mahomed Ali 

 in 1815, at Byssel, consisting of twenty-five thou- 

 sand men, had only five hundred horsemen with 

 them, mostly belonging to Redjed and the tuUovv- 

 ers of Faisal, one of' Sauvris' sons, who was pre- 

 sent in the army. The climate and pasture of 

 Yemen is said to be prejudicial to the health of 

 horses, many of them die there of disease; their 

 breed never thrives, and it degenerates in the first 

 generation. The Imam of Suura3, and all the gov- 

 ernors of Yemen, raise a yearly supply of horses 

 from Nedjid, and those of the sea-coast receive 

 considerable supplies by Sovvakin from the Nile 

 countries. 



"During the Wahabee government, horsea 

 yearly became scarcer among the Arabs. They 

 are sold by their masters to foreign purchasers, 

 who cany them to Yemen, Syria, and Bassora, 

 vvhich latter place supplies India with Arabian 

 horses, because they are afraid to have them 

 seized by Saono or his successors, it being be- 

 come the custom, upon every slight pretext of 

 disobedience and unlawful conduct, to declare a 

 Bedouin mare forfeited to the public treasury. 

 The possession of her fjesides, obliges her master 

 to attend continually his chief in war. Many 

 Arabs thus preler keeping no horse at all, la 



