204 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



plete knowledge of horses, and to keep their sta- 

 ble upon a most extravajrant establishment. * 



# * # # *'■' 



"The Bedoums use the hor?es of ihe Rhoupe 

 exclusively as stallions. The finest horse burn of 

 a nmre belonging to a race whici) is not compris- 

 ed within the Rlionse, would, notwiihstandinir its 

 beauty and perhaps superior qualities, never be 

 aliuitted as a lireeder. Savud, the VVahabee's 

 chiel lavoriie mare, f which he constant]}' rode on 

 his expeditions, and whose name, Reraye, was be- 

 come lanious all over Arabii, brought a horse of 

 very superior beauty and excellence; the mother, 

 however, being not of the Rliouse, Savud would 

 never permit his people to use that horse as a stal- 

 lion, and not knowing what to do with it, as Be- 

 douins, hke the Lybians, never ride horses, he sent 

 it as a present to the sheriff. J 



''The Bedouins generally do not permit their 

 mares to be covered until the c.om[)Ietion of the 

 fifth year; poor people who look anxiously for- 

 ward to the profits to be derived from foaling, of- 

 ten have them covered after tiie completion of the 

 fourth year. The price paid for the use of a stal- 

 lion, covering a mare, is one Spanish dollar. The 

 master of the horse has a right to waive the pay- 

 ment of the dollar, and may take his chance to 

 wail until the mare foals; if she throws a filly, he 

 is entitled to a young female lamb of one year of 

 age; if she brings a foal, he takes a similar male 

 camel in payment of the use of his horse. When 

 a horse is born, the Bedouins never let it drop 

 down to the ground, but receive it upon their 

 arms out of the womb ol" the n)othei", and keep- 

 ing it for several hours upon their arms, occupied 

 in waf^hing it, in stretching and strenglheninir its 

 limbs, and hugging it like a baby. After which 

 they put it down and watch its feeble steps wilii 

 particular attention, prognosticating fi-om that 

 movement the virtues or defects of their future 

 companions. The people of" Medjid feed their 

 horses regularly on dates. At Deyrach, in the 

 country ol" the Flassfe, dates are mixed with the 

 dried clover (birseem,) and given them in food. 

 Barley, however, is the most usual food in all 

 parts of Arabia. 



"The wealthy people of Medjid frequently give 

 flesh to their horses, raw as well as boiled, to- 

 gether with all the offals of their table. I knew 

 a man at Hamah, in Syria, who assured me that 



* "In Rerljed, the Nadaba and Dahma are mnch es- 

 teemed. The breed of the Messena of the Koheyl races 

 serves in Redjed never as a stallion." 



t "Savud boii'^Mit her from a Bedouin of the Arabs 

 Kahtan for $1,5(>0." 



X "A troop of Druves on horseback attacked in the 

 summer of 1815, a party of Bc-douins in the Hamrau, 

 and pursued them to their encampment, wiien they 

 were in their turn assisted by a superior Ibrce, and all 

 kdled, exceptinij one, who flod. He was pursued by 

 one ol the best mounted Bedouins, but his mare, al- 

 though fatigued, kept up the run for several hours, but 

 could not be overtaken. Bifore his pursuer o:ave up 

 the chase, he cried out tohim. promising him safe con- 

 duct, to beo; to be permitted to kiss his excellent mare 

 upon her front. Upon his refusing, he at last left the 

 close pursuit, and in blessinn; the generous beast, cried 

 out to the fugitive, 'go and wash the feet of your mare 

 and drink of the water.' This last expression is much 

 used by the Bedouins to show the great love they bear 

 to their mares, and the obligation under which they are 

 to them." 



he had frequently given his horses washed meat 

 before a fatiguing journey, to make then) endure 

 the journey with greater liu'ility. The same per- 

 son related to me, that, heinii: apprehensive of the 

 irovernor of the town lakinii' a hking to h s favor- 

 ite horse, he fed it lor a li>riniuht, e.xc'usively on 

 roasted [lork, which increased is mettle to such 

 a heiiihr, that it became absolutely uoL'^overnable, 

 and coidd be no longer an object of desne to the 

 ijovernor. I have seen vicious horses in Eirvpt, 

 which were apt to bite, cured of Ihis vice in pre- 

 senting to them, while in the act ol" diiintT so, a 

 leg of mutton just inkon off ihe fire, the pnins the 

 horse liih in bitini? through the hot meat, made it 

 give u|) that trick alter a lew repealed lessons, 

 Eirypiian horses are much less soft in their tem- 

 pers than Arabian; * they are ofien vicious, while 

 the latter almost never are, and require to be con- 

 stantly tied, while the Arabians fieely walk about 

 the encampment iilce camels. 



"Egyptian grooms are (amous all over the east 

 (or the treatment of horses; so much so that the 

 Pashas and grandees all over Asiatic Turkey 

 make it a rule to have always a couple of ihem 

 in their service. They curry a horse three or four 

 times a day, and make themselves so busy about 

 it, that it is against law in Eiiypt to have as many 

 grooms as horses in the stable, everv one of the 

 li)rmer having the care of one horse. The Waha- 

 bee chiel", who has no doubt the finest stud of hor- 

 ses in the whole east, never allows his mares to be 

 mounted until they have completed their fourth 

 year, t The common Bedouins frequently ride 

 their own befi)re they have coinpleie(i the third. 

 The Wahabee chief has prohibited his Aralis 

 the selling of one-third oC a mare, as is li-equeritly 

 practised amoni; the northern Araf)s, allejring that 

 the custom leads often to uidawlid and cheating 

 tricks. He permits the selling of one-half of the 

 mare." 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 ON MANURING. 



The subject of manures is of the utmost im- 

 portance to the ascriculturist; l()r, if no reparation is 

 made to the land, lor the draft made bv the gath- 

 ered crops, the soil must be impoverished, and a 

 continuation of the system will end in absolute 

 sterility. Some return must be made for what we 

 take; yet, it is obvious, the mode of nKinuring 

 niusi be acconnnodated to the means of Ihe cul- 

 tivator. A complicated and exfiensive system, 

 although applicable to a country where labor 

 is abundant and cheap, and the products of airri- 

 culture liiuh priced, would not be suitable to 

 one where labor is dear, and ihe produce of the 

 soil the I'e verse. Jn various parts of Europe, la- 

 bor can be commanded of the most efficient char- 

 acter and at a very reduced rate. In the United 

 States, Ibr ihe most part, it is widely difii^rent; 

 and, if the cultivator of the soil, here, were to em- 



* "The Arabs have the prophet's saying continually 

 in their mouths, 'good fortune rests upon our noble 

 horses.' " 



t "The tail is never left to grow at full length until 

 the horse or mare has completed the back teeth. The 

 back teeth are counted with the mare up to the fifteenth 

 year." 



