172 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



" No account is made of butter and milk, garden 

 vegetables, fruit, &c., used in the family. 



Original cost of the farm, -- - $2,900 00 



Cost up to the present time about 10 00 



Farm expenses for 1863, - 516 00 



" Elm Valk Farm, North Andover." 



THE BREEDING AND BEARING OF 



HORSES. 



Thkre is no part of the world where the breeding 

 and rearing of good horses will pay a better profit 

 than in the Southern States. No inconsiderable 

 share of the best animals are now imported from the 

 North at a high expense, after paying high prices to 

 the producers. This fact is known to most of our 

 readers, while the cheapness of land at the South, and 

 the facility with which suitable food for horses may 

 be grown, will not be questioned. Some have thought 

 that the climate of the cotton-growing States is too 

 warm for the health and highest constitutional devel- 

 opments of the eciuine genus. To refute this notion, 

 it is enough to refer to the horses of Arabia and an- 

 cient Egypt. The horse ])clongs to the thick-skinned 

 order of mammalia, having the elephant and rhinoce- 

 ros as congeners; and he flourishes best in warm cli- 

 mates, as the vast droves of wild horses in Central 

 Africa, South America, and Asia, sufRciently attest. 

 Judging from the best lights of comparative anato- 

 my, natural history and geology, we think that Afri- 

 ca is the native habitat of the horse, and not the 

 steppes of Central Asia, as has been suggested by 

 HuJiBOLDT and Pallas. Perhaps no man living is so 

 good authority on the origin and geographical dis- 

 tribution of animals as Professor Agassiz, whose lec- 

 tures for several terms we heard at ihe Smithsonian 

 Institute, and recently a course in the city of Roch- 

 ester. 



Egyptian monuments leave no room for dottbt that 

 the horse was domesticated in the valley of the Nile 

 indefinite ages before any history of which we have 

 any knowledge was written. The earliest allusion to 

 the horse is an incidental mention of mules in the 

 Mosaic notice of Anah, the son of Zibeox, and a co- 

 temporary of Isaac; and the earliest express mention 

 of him records that "Joseph gave the Egyj^tians 

 bread in exchange for hoises, and for flocks, and for 

 the cattle of the herds, and for the asses." The ear- 

 liest evidence that the horse was broken for the sad- 

 dle or ridden, occurs in Jacob's benediction on his 

 sons — " Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in 

 the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his 

 rider shall fall backward." 



" Horses and Chariots figure largely in the early 

 wiitten history of our race; and one of the most ef- 

 fective and beautiful passages in Job is his gi-aphic 

 description of the war-horse. The Rev. John M. 

 WiLSox, of Edinburgh, says that " the word ' thun- 

 der' in our common English version of the passage is 

 wrong, and must be substituted by the phrase ' beau- 

 tiful mane.' " He adds, " whoever has observed the 

 effect of a spirited horse's mane at a moment of ex- 

 citement, will appreciate the allusion to it." 



"Hast thou given the horse his strength? Hast 

 thou clothed his neck witli his Ijcautiful mane? Canst 

 thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? The glory 



of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley 

 and rcjoiceth in his strength. He goeth on to meet 

 the armed men; he mocketh at fear and is not af- 

 frighted; neither turncth he back from the sword. 

 The quiver that rattleth against him, the glittering 

 spear and shield; he swalloweth the groitnd with 

 fierceness and rage ; neither believeth he that it is the 

 sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trum- 

 pets Ha! ha! — and he smelleth the battle afar off, the 

 thunder of the captains and the shouting." 



When the children of Israel left Egypt, "PnARAon 

 took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots 

 of Egypt, and captains over every one of them; and 

 the Egyptians pursued after the children of Israel — 

 all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his 

 horsemen and his army."' 



Solomon had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 cavalry. 

 In the land of the Fig and the Olive, the horse has 

 attained his highest developments; and his cultiva- 

 tion at the South should no longer be neglected. 

 Start with a determination to provide a full supply of 

 suitable forage, summer and winter. The most seri- 

 ous impediment in the way of rearing horses in the 

 cotton-growing districts, is the want of cheap food for 

 their daily consumption. This want, however, arises 

 more from neglect than from any other cause. Sain- 

 foin, lucerne, lupins, vetches, peas, beans, and grasses, 

 may be grown as cheaply at the South as in any part 

 of Europe, Asia, or Africa. It only requires atten- 

 tion, care, and moderate industry, to secure feed 

 enough for a good stock of horses. 



No other cultivated plant probably contributes so 

 much to the growth of horse flesh in this country as 

 Indian corn; and the climate of the Southern Atlan- 

 tic States is best adapted to the prolific growth 

 of this cereal grass. If the soil is defective in some 

 places, let it be carefully studied, and the defects re- 

 moved. YouATT truthfully teaches his readers that 

 soft water is much better for horses to drink than 

 hard lime-stone water. It so happens that the writer 

 has had excellent opportunities to study the water 

 consumed by jiersons and domestic animals, both in 

 freestone and limestone districts. Horses and cattle 

 uniformly prefer rain water in limestone regions, wher- 

 ever it can be found on the ground, to that which has 

 passed through the earth and become impregnated 

 with salts of lime, as it appears in brooks, springs, 

 and wells. A litlle lime, however, has never, to our 

 knowledge, done either horses or neat stock any harm. 

 Nor should our remarks be construed as bearing 

 against the use of common salt. The salts dissolved 

 out of earths, which when in excess arc injuiious to 

 animals, man included, are gypsum (sulphate of lime), 

 alum (sulphate of alumina and potash), and copperas 

 (sulphate of iron). Carbonate of lime, held in solu- 

 tion by free carbonic acid, and chlorids of lime, mag- 

 nesia and iron, may exist in excess. We are ac- 

 quainted with farms on which well water contains 

 epsom salts enough to physic persons and cattle not 

 accustomed to it. Men and horses ought to have 

 tolerably pure water, although in extensive districts 

 both drink water that abounds in many foreign 

 bodies. 



Too little attention has been paid to the anatomy 

 and physiology of the horse, and to his ailments, by 

 men of science, in this country. Our professional 



