134 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



Remounts 



and are then sent directly to 

 the regiments. These horses 

 are chiefly drawn from Nor- 

 mandy. The French remount 

 stations differ from those of 

 nearly all other nations. 

 Horses are there trained and 

 delivered, properly taught, to 

 the regiments, whereas in 

 nearly all other countries food 

 and proper care is all that the 

 governments give to their 

 remounts. In fact, in some 

 The system f)f remount as applied in Norway countries there is a practice of allowing con- 

 is peculiar. The necessary horses are delivered tractors to feed and care for the young horses. 



by the owners of certain farms, who 



are legally bound to supply them. 



This bund, or obligation, is very 



ancient, and dates back probabl)' to 



the time when the nobles were 



obliged in times f)f war to furnish 



their sovereign with a certain num- 

 ber of horse and foot soldiers. 



In Sweden, where the number of 



military horses is about six thousand, 



they have an annual need of fi\c 



hundred and forty remounts, which 



are all bought in the interior of the 



country, at an age varying from three 



to si.\ years ; part of them are formed 



immediately into a coqjs, the rest 



being sent to the remount stations. 

 France needs annually fifteen 



thousand young horses ; those for 



the cavalry are bought when three years and 



a half old and sent to the stations, whereas the pains to fa\'or the production of good animals, 



draft horses are five years old when bought, as the countr\' is lacking in good stock. It 



has even introduced a system 

 of premiums for remounts, 

 which amounted in 1899 to 

 one hundred and twenty-five 

 thousand francs ($25,000). 

 These premiums are in pro- 

 portion to the good qualities 

 of the animals, but they can- 

 not go beyond twenty-five 

 hundred francs (S500) per 

 horse. The price of a remount 



Raising the Leg of .a Restive Horse 



The French government takes the greatest 



l-',xi urisi- IN Dkawing 



