996 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



so necessary for ease and sa;fety. The shoulders should be oblique and well furnished with muscle, but 

 not heavy ; and the withers in particular should be high. The elbows should be turned rather out than 

 in, and the legs should stand out straight, and by no means fall under the horse, or it betokens a stumbler. 

 The pasterns should neither be too oblique, which bespeaks weakness ; nor too straight, which wears the 

 horse out, and is unpleasant to the rider. The carcase should be round, or the horse will be washy 

 and weak; the loins straight, wide, and ribbed home; the thighs of good substance; and although the 

 being cat-hammed, or having the hocks turned inwards, is defective in beauty, it often bespeaks a trotter. 



6617. The criteria of a cavalry horse are, that he have considerable extention of bulk or size, to enable 

 him to carry weight, with good carcase to allow him to feed coarsely, and yet thrive at picket or on service. 

 He should have also liberty of action ; but great speed is not requisite. The best cavalry horses are those 

 formed of the united properties of hackneys and very light draught horses. 



6618. The criteria of road horses for quick draught, or coach, chariot, stage and jwst chaises, &c., are 

 derived from the immediate purposes for which they are intended ; as requiring eitlier strength or speed 

 in greater proportions. To make them safe, the fore-hand should rise, the back should be straight, the step 

 should be short but quick, which fatigues least. As they approach the hunter in form, they are best fitted 

 for quick work; and as they resemble the best kind of light agricultural horses, they are calculated for 

 heavy draught, as coaches, &c. But in all, a portion of blood gives courage, durability, and condenses 

 strength into lessened bulk ; by which activity is gained. It is of great consequence to a coach-horse that 

 the neck and head be so formed as to be enabled to rein-in well to the bridle. 



6619. The criteria of a dray-horse a.xe, that he be very broad breasted and muscular, and thick in the 

 shoulders, which should not lie backward. Nor should the fore-hand be up, as reconanended in the road- 

 horse; for, by holding up their heads, such horses may be choked by the collar, as they would, if so 

 formed, draw' too much by the throat, and their wind being thus stopped, would be in danger of falling 

 down. The neck of a dray-horse is not the better for being long, and the head should be projxyrtionate to 

 it. Like all horses, he should be chosen with short legs, and good strong hoofs. He ought to be thick in 

 his thighs, and large in bone ; but above all, he ought to be a steady collared horse, with courage to make 

 him true to a severe pull ; and yet, without a hot fiery spirit to make him fretful. 



6620. The criteria of a waggon horse are, in some respects, difterent from those of the dray-horse. He 

 should be more weighty, and altogether larger. Kapidity of motion is greatly subordinate, in the heavy 

 stage-waggons usually seen on our roads, to strength. It is all collar work ; nothing is gained from the 

 momentum of the dragged mass, which, the instant the pull ceases, stands still. The waggon horse should 

 be patient in the extreme; willing to lie to his collar up-hill, and yet settle into his share of 

 work on level ground. As his exertions are constant, it is of the greatest consequence that he be a 

 good feeder. 



6621. The criteria of a horse peculiarly adapted to the labours of agriculture, are thus given by Culley : 

 His head should be as small as the proportion of the animal will admit ; his nostrils expanded, and muzzle 

 fine ; his eyes cheerful and prominent ; his ears small, upright, and placed near together ; his neck, rising 

 out from between his shoulders with an easy tai^ering curve, must join gracefully to the head ; his 

 shoulders, being well thrown back, must also go into his neck (at what is called the i^oints) unperceived, 

 which perhaps facilitates the going much more than the narrow shoulder ; the arm, or fore-thigh, should 

 be muscular, and tapering from the shoulder, to meet a fine, straight, sinewy, and bony leg; the hoof 

 circular, and wide at the heel ; his chest deep, and full at the girth ; his loins or fillets broad and straight, 

 and body round ; his hips or hooks by no means wide, but quarters long, and the tail set on so as to be 

 nearly in the same right line as his back ; his thighs strong and muscular ; his legs clean and fine-boned ; 

 the leg-bones not round, but what is called lathy or flat. 



6622. The chief points in a farming cart-horse, in the opinion of the author of the New Farmer's 

 Calendar, are, " neck not long, nor too thick ; short legs, rather flat than round and gummy ; fore-feet 

 even, not too distant; wide chest; strong, but not high, shoulders; considerable length of waist, sup- 

 ported by a wide loin; quarters full, and rather raised ; strong muscular thigh ; size, fifteen hands one 

 inch to sixteen hands high. Being somewhat foi-elow gives them an advantage in draught ; and a mode- 

 rate length of waist insures speed in the walk. 



6623. The horse used in husbandry, according to the writer of the Experienced Farmer, ought to be 

 larger, but in other respects like the road horse : and, instead of walking two or three miles an hour, be 

 able to walk four or five. In that case he would be able both to plough more land in a given time, and 

 work in the cart or waggon with more despatch, when wanted. In harvest time, a nimble and strong 

 horse is valuable. In drawing manure into the field, or corn to the market, the farmer will also find his 

 account in strength and activity ; for, as the draught in all these cases is light one way, such horses would 

 do their business with speed. The small farmer need not with this kind of horse keep an idle one ; he 

 might carry his master to market, and plough the remainder of the week. 



6624. In a horse for the plough, according to Brown, both strength and agility are required ; a dash of 

 blood, therefore, is not disadvantageous. It is not size that confers strength, the largest horses being often 

 soonest worn out. A quick even step, an easy movement, and a good temper, are qualities of the greatest 

 importance to a working horse ; and the possession of them is of more avail than big bones, long legs, and 

 a lumpy carcase. To feed well is also a property of great value ; and this property, as all judges know, 

 depends much upon the shape of the barrel, deepness of chest, strength of back, and size of the hips or 

 hooks with which the animal is furnished. If straight in the back, and not over short, high in the ribs, 

 and with hooks close and round, the animal is generally hardy, capable of undergoing a great deal of 

 fatigue, without lessening his appetite, or impairing his working powers; whereas horses that are sharp 

 pointed, flat ribbed, hollow backed, and wide set in the hooks, are usually bad feeders, and soon done up 

 when put to hard work. 



6625. The criteria of a horse's age are derived from the appearance of the teeth. According to La Fosse 

 the younger, there are these appearances. The horse is foaled with six molar or grinding teeth in each 

 jaw {fig. 844. a) ; the tenth or twelfth day after, the two front nippers (a) appear above and below, and in 



fourteen or fifteen days from this, the two intermediate {b b) are pushed out ; the corner ones (c c) are 

 not cut till three months after. At ten months the incisive or nippers are on a level with each other, the 

 front less than the middle, and these again less than the corners ; they at this time have a very sensible 

 cavity (rf). At twelve months this cavity becomes smaller, and the animal appears with four molar teeth 

 oh each side, above and below, three of the temporaneous or colts', and one permanent or horse tooth : 

 ^t eighteen the cavity in the nippers is filled up, and there are five grinders, two of the horse, and three 

 temporaneous : at two years [fig. 845.), the first of the colt's molar teeth in each jaw, above and below, 

 ?ae displaced ; at two years and a half, or three years, the front nippers fall and give place to the perma- 

 nent ones : at three and a half the middle nippers are likewise removed, at which period the second milk- 

 molar falls : at four years the horse is found with six molar teeth, five of his new set, and one of his 

 last : at four years and a half the corner nippers of the colt fall and give place to the "permanent set 



