1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



565 



walrus. Sunny Gorge, and a large indentation in 

 Dallas Bay, which bears the name of the Inhabited 

 place, showed us the remains of a village, surround- 

 ed by the bones of seals, walrus and whales, all now 

 cased in ice. In impressive connection with the 

 same facts, showing not only the former extension 

 of the Esquimaux race to the higher north, but the 

 climatic changes which may, perhaps, be still in 

 progress there, is the sledge-runner, which Mr. 

 Morton saw on the shores of Morris Bay, in lati- 

 tude 81°. It was made of the bone of a whale, 

 and worked out with skilful labor. 



In this recapitulation of facts, I am not entering 

 upon the question of a warmer climate, impressed 

 upon this region in virtue of a physical law, which 

 extends the isotherms toward the pole. Still less 

 am I disposed to express an opinion as to the in- 

 fluence which ocean currents may exert on the 

 temperature of these far northern regions. There 

 is, at least, one man — an officer in the same ser- 

 vice with myself, and whose scientific investigations 

 do it honor — with whom I am content to leave 

 that discussion. But I would respectfully suggest 

 to those whose opportunities facilitate the inquiry, 

 whether it may not be that the Gulf Stream, traced 

 already to (he coast of Novaia Zemlia, is defected 

 by that peninsula into the space around the pole. 

 It would require a change in the mean summer 

 temperature of only a few degrees to develop the 

 periodical recurrence of open water. The condi- 

 tions which define the line of perpetual snow and 

 the limits of the glacier formation, may have, cer- 

 tainly, a proximate application to the problem of 

 such water spaces near the pole. — Dr. Kane's Arc- 

 tic Expeditions. 



within striking distance of a land of plenty — seems 

 to us a very absurd conclusion. 



There are enough horses to be found dressed up 

 in the garb of starvation ; having tight skin, promi- 

 nent ribs, and a cadaverous countenance, living, yet 

 half dead. But they know nothing of the "Famine 

 in Egypt ;" they get enough, but too much of the 

 same kind. — Dadd's Veterinary Journal. 



HOUSES TOO WELL FED. 



A great proportion of our horses are too well 

 fed — obtain more food than they require. In this 

 land oi plenty most of our valuable horses are over 

 fed, and more especially does this happen, among 

 animals owned by wealthy and liberal individuals. 

 The impression we wish to convey to the mind of 

 the reader is, that the food of such, is not propor- 

 •tioned to labor — in other words, there exists a dis- 

 proportion between the amount of carbon taken in 

 the form of food, and the oxygen received in the 

 process of respiration. Now to illustrate this, we 

 will suppose that a man engaged in mercantile pur- 

 suits owns one or more horses, he has not the time, 

 nor inclination to give the one or the other the ne- 

 cessary amount of exercise ; they stand up to a full 

 crib, from day to day ; enjoying — or rather, gorg- 

 ing themselves with a certain amount of fodder, 

 over and above what they actually require, and 

 much more than they really need ; the surplus is 

 often stored up in the form of fat, and this induces 

 acute diseases, and they die of too much food and 

 care. It is very rare that we have occasion to rec- 

 ommend a man to feed his horse more liberally, 

 but almost always the reverse. Starvation is said 

 to be the cause for many equine diseases, but so far 

 as our experience goes, such cases are, in this coun- 

 try, very rare. We conceive the term starvation 

 to be a libel upon civilization ; and so infrequent is 

 its application among a nation of husbandmen, that 

 it is omitted in our dictionaries. A inan on a bar- 

 ren rock, or a horse in the deserts of Arabia, might 

 probably starve, but the idea of the latter starving 

 in the vicinity of a well-stocked barn, or stable — 



For the New England Farmer. 



AN OPINION, NOTHING MORE. 



Mr. Editor : — I am confident that too much at- 

 tention is not given, nor is likely to be, to the rear- 

 ing of good horses. The wealth of our country is 

 being fast developed, is diff'using itself among the 

 masses, enabling thousands to indulge in rational 

 gratifications, who had before contented themselves 

 with the bare necessaries of life. Now it is possi- 

 ble, with very little extra expense, to have races of 

 those animals, such as to gratify a just self-respect. 

 The man who drives a good horse thinks more of 

 himself than if he drove a mean one ; and as he 

 thinks, so he really is, a little wiser, somewhat bet- 

 ter, more of a man. 



Monstrous doctrine ! do I hear some one exclaim? 

 Yes, monstrous, because it is new ; but it is true, 

 nevertheless. We take the color of our being 

 from the men we associate with, in a large degree. 

 In a smaller degree, we take it from the very ani- 

 mals about us, from the things we are conversant 

 with, from the scenery, from every thing which af- 

 fects our senses and our imagination. Now, then, 

 think of a horse, thorough bred, sagacious, mild in 

 temper, beautiful in form, in color, in movement ; 

 and then think of the man who drives him, feeds 

 him, loves him, admires him, is loved by him, con- 

 fided in, and obeyed. If he is not someM'hat a bet- 

 ter man after managing such a horse a few years, 

 than if he had the care and feeding, the training 

 and working of an ugly, contrary scrub, for the 

 same time, he must certainly be a hard case, one of 

 those impracticable, unsympathizing, heartless bun- 

 dles of bone and muscle, which are hardly entitled 

 to be called men. 



Any one who has the best elements of humanity 

 in his nature, who is susceptible of meliorating in- 

 fluences, cannot fail to feel a high degree of satis- 

 faction in the management of a good horse, nor flul 

 to receive a kindly influence on his own feelings 

 and character. The people of a State, having a 

 supply of good horses, and indulging a reasonable 

 gratification in the use of such horses, other things 

 being equal, will inevitably become superior to 

 those of another State, where it is more common 

 to be angry with a vicious horse than to be grate- 

 ful for the services of a kind one, and more com- 

 mon to be ashamed of an ugly one, than to enjoy a 

 rational j^leasure in a beautiful one. Viewing the 

 matter as we will, whether in a merely economical 

 light, as that the keeping of a horse that is a horse, 

 is no more than the keeping of a mere scrub, or 

 whether in the higher influences on social and mor- 

 al character, the importance of the sultject is great. 



But I have not yet learned that extremely fast 

 horses are good horses. The ability to go a mile 

 in two minutes twenty, is no test of beauty or ser- 

 viceableness. A horse that can go it, is not the 

 horse that men of taste like to look upon, or that 

 men of sense prefer to use. Such speed is no test 



