PREFACE. Vii 



The task of preparation to render the present edition more usoful for 

 American readers, has consisted chiefly in what will be found prefixed 

 '.o it, on the various stages which have marked and acts which have 

 contributed to the improvement o( the Eiiglish stock of horses; some of 

 the best of which, as is more particularly shown, have been imported 

 into the United States, from time to time, for the last century or more — 

 as also, and more particularly, of what is said of the American Trot- 

 ting Horse. To these have been added, a dissertation on the natural 

 history and uses of the Ass and the Mule ; the last named animal 

 being deeemed worthy of especial notice, on account of its utility 

 and economy, in American agriculture; and the yet greater extent to 

 which it is believed it might be employed with advantage in this, as it 

 is known to be in some other countries. 



But without presuming to recommend the work on account of any 

 observations of his own, the American Editor, who has himself written 

 volumes to illustrate and defend the interests of American husbandry, does 

 venture, with the utmost confidence, to pronounce the work itself to be 

 one which every gentleman may read with certainty of instruction — 

 leaving, as it does, in truth, nothing untold, which need be known of the 

 Horse, in his minutest anatomy, with full directions as to breeding and 

 breaking, food and exercise ; as, also, plain descriptions of his various 

 diseases, and their most simple and certain cures. Such a work ought 

 to be in the possession, for convenient reference, of every owner of 

 horses, whether for the coach, the saddle, the cart, or the plough. The 

 great value attached to this work, and its entire success in En'^Iand, 

 may be understood, when we state that the new edition just published 

 in London, and from which the present is reprinted, has been nearly 

 rewritten by the author, and improved by the insertion of many new 

 cuts, prepared for it by a distinguished artist. 



J. S. S. 



Washington, May, 1843. 



