594 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



III. 



THE HORSE BUYINQ AND SELLING. 



WHY Difficult. From the earliest writings on the horse 

 down to the present, writers have recognized the gener- 

 ally acceded fact that but few men understand the na- 

 ture and construction of the horse so thoroughly as to enable 

 them at all times to know his value with enough accuracy to 

 buy with sure confidence. 



Xenophon attempted to tell his readers "how a man may 

 be least deceived in purchasing a horse." No writer has been 

 able yet to tell how a man may never be deceived in buying a 

 a horse. There is no article which men buy and sell that is so 

 complicated in all its mechanism, and no animal whose tempera- 

 ment and intelligence and good training are of so much impor- 

 tance in giving value to it. Appearances are deceitful in inani- 

 mate articles of trade, but how vastly more unknowable are the 

 mysteries of organization, breeding, and training of this noblest 

 of all dumb animals. The Romans had a motto, " Let him who 

 is about to buy a horse beware." Moderns may well adopt it. 

 It is not possible to give rules so complete that the average 

 buyer will be enabled at all times to buy wisely. We hope, 

 however, to offer hints that may be helpful to all who may need 

 to buy a horse. 



What is Unsoundness? Professor Coleman has said, 

 "Any deviation from nature is an unsoundness." In a general 

 way, this is true. Yet, for the purposes of the buyer, it is not 

 strictly true. If this rule is to be drawn closely,* no horse that 

 has been kept at work regularly, however light the work mny 

 be, until he is eight or ten years old, can be called sound. Tho 

 mouth, the shoulders, the joints of the limbs, will all show the 



