1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



269 



THE ART OP RIDINO. 



Don't be alarmed ; this is neither an Amer- 

 ican "agricultural horse trot," nor an English 

 "steeplechase." Its purpose is to show how 

 men ride, rather than how horses go. Riding 

 is an art, and must be acquired, like other 

 arts, by study and practice. Occasionally, 

 however, a man seems to be a born rider, and 

 takes to the saddle naturally as some do to mu- 

 sic, mechanics or painting. But most of us are 

 not thus gifted, and skill in horsemanshijf as 

 well as in other professions is acquired by hard 

 study and long continued practice. Our cut 

 is copied from a new work on Seats and Sad- 

 dles, Bits and Bitting, noticed on another 

 page, and is designed to illustrate a bad arid 

 good seat, and to enforce the caution given to 

 the rider "not to stick out his rump as if it 

 did not belong to him." We can attempt no 

 synopsis of the principles discussed or the di- 

 rections given in this volume. We mu;t, 

 however, give the reply of Major Dwyer to 

 the question, "What is a man to sit on? 

 Well, he has two bones in his seat, which we 

 venture, in imitation of German phraseology, 

 to call his 'sitting-bones,' and a third in rear 

 — that on which long ago Lord Monboddo 

 built his celebrated theory, since improved on 

 by Darwin, of the human race having been 

 originally developed from monkeys ; this third 

 bone completes, with the other two, a trian- 

 gular basis for the human seat on horse-back, 

 and, be it said, a much more efficient one than 

 for the theory in question. If the angle of 

 the hip-bone comes to be perpendicular over 

 the sitting-bone at the same side, the rider's 



weight will rest on this triangular basis, which, 

 being the largest available for the purpose, 

 affords the greatest degree of stability to the 

 seat. If, however, the perpendicular from the 

 hip-bone falls to the rear of the sitting-bone, 

 the leg and thigh are immediately thrown for- 

 ward to the horse's shoulder, the rider's back 

 is converted into the segment of a circle, and 

 his weight sways about unsteadily on the Mon- 

 boddo corner of the triangle. Finally, if the 

 aforesaid perpendicular fall in front of the 

 sitting-bone, the fork-seat is achieved, the 

 thighs come back toward the horse's tail, the 

 rider's body is carried forward by every move- 

 ment of the animal, because it rests only on 

 two points Instead of three, and this may be 

 styled the 'muff school of equestrianism.' " 



Agriculture in China. — The Chinamen, 

 who walk over bridges built two thousand 

 years ago, who cultivated the cotton plant cen- 

 turies before this country was heard of, who 

 fed the silk worm before King Solomon built 

 his throne, have fifty thousand square miles 

 around Shanghai which are called the Garden 

 of China, and which have been tilled by count- 

 less generations, and are as productive now as 

 ever. 



The area is as large as New York and 

 Pennsylvania combined, and is all meadow 

 land raised but a few feet above the river ; 

 lakes, rivers, canals — a complete network of 

 water communication ; the land under the 

 highest tilth ; three crops a year harvested ; 

 population so dense that wherever you look, 

 you see men and wcmen in blue pants and 

 blouse, so numerous that you fancy some fair 

 or muster is coming off, and all hands have, 

 turned out for a holiday. — Western Farmer. 



