LIVE STOCK DEPARTMENT. 



CHAPTER I . 



THE HORSE HISTORY.* 



THE Fossil Horse. Paleontology teaches that the horse 

 inhabited America during the post-pliocene period, contem- 

 poraneous with the mastodon and Megalonyx. He was 

 unknown to the natives of America at the time of the discovery 

 of America. Fossil remains, chiefly molar teeth, have been so 

 frequently found on the plains and plateaus of the Southern 

 States, and in Central and South America, and have been so 

 carefully identified by such paleontologists as Dr. Lund, Profes- 

 sor Owen, and other competent paleontologists, that there is no 

 longer room for doubt that the horse found existence in the 

 Western world congenial to his nature. 



Though the vast plains of the Northern and Central and 

 Southern divisions of the American continent are perfectly 

 adapted by climate, soil, and products to the necessities of the 

 species, no single living specimen was found by the Europeans 

 in America. The rapid increase of horses, that swelled into vast 

 herds on the plains and plateaus, shows how well adapted is this 

 country to the production of the species. 



Just when, in the past geological periods, the horse became 

 extinct as a living fauna, weuld be interesting to know, but as 

 yet science has not revealed it to us. The broad plains of both 

 continents seem perfectly adapted to the necessities of the genus 

 ffippus, as is proved by the readiness with which the individuals 

 that have escaped from the control of man have been speedily 

 succeeded in their wild homes by vast herds of wild horses. 

 Science has failed to show that the specimens of the fauna of 



* Contributed by L. N. BONHAM, Agricultural Editor Cincinnati Commercial. 



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