KEPORTS. 51 



thereof, vr'ith. universal approbation. Ho hopes, liowerer, to 

 present his views and considerations in snch a manner, that 

 they may serve to aid the young farmer who is inquiring for 

 information in regard to tliis dc})artment of stock breeding. , 



The phace of the horse in the vertebrate animal kingdom, 

 according to the systematic arrangement of Van Der Hoven, 

 tlic Dutch Zoologist, is in class XVII., called Mammals, 

 (^Mammalia), order IV., Parhijdermat't^ Family XIV., 

 Salidingula : feet with a single perfect toe, covered by a broad 

 hoof without supplementary hools. Incisors in a continuous 

 series in both, jaws; molar teeth complex. Two inguinal 

 mamma?. Incisors 3 ; canines, ^-]; or none ; molars in adults, 

 elo 5 i'^ younger indivithials witli a small anterior molar, de- 

 ciduous, (ivolf lootfi, of Dutch writers.) All the species of 

 the genus horse, belong to the old world, says the author 

 quoted, and are at home on the wide mountain-plains of Asia 

 and Africa. They live in troops, arc swift and feed chiefly on 

 grass. The intestinal canal is wide and long ; they have a 

 single stomach, a large coecum, and no gall-bladder. The 

 horse, (^Equvs Caballufi,') is not now met Avitli in its original 

 wild State, but has returned to that state in the slrppes of 

 Asia and the extensive plains of South America. The wild 

 horses differ from those in domestication in hi^ving larger heads, 

 and smaller bodies. Of all the domestical animals, none is a 

 greater pet with man than the horse. The period of gestation 

 is eleven months. In the fifth year, the milk teeth arc usually 

 replaced by permanent teeth. The horse lives about thirty 

 years ; but there are cases on record of forty years or more 

 having been reached by this beautiful and highly useful 

 animal. It is difficult to determine the country of the old 

 ■world of which the horse was a native. Some writers assign 



