442 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK in. 



The trick called bishoping, made use of by dealers to prolong the 

 appearance of the mark in the teeth, and make an eight- or nine- 

 year-old horse appear only six or seven, is thus performed : They 

 cast the horse in order to have him more at command, and with a 

 steel graver, like that used for ivory, hollow the middle teeth a little, 

 and the corner ones somewhat more ; they then fill the holes with 

 resin, pitch, sulphur, or some grains of wheat, to which they set fire 

 with a piece of hot wire, of the size of the hole. This operation they 

 repeat from time to time, until they give the hole a lasting black 

 appearance, in imitation of nature. Notwithstanding this fraudulent 

 attempt, the hot iron forms a little yellowish circle round the holes, 

 similar to that which it would leave upon ivory. Hence, there is 

 another trick to prevent detection while the horse is under examina- 

 tion, and that is, to cause a quantity of foam to gather about the 

 mouth, by rubbing a little salt, or dried bread crumbs with salt, on the 

 lips. This foam partially hides the circle made by the iron. 



It is at least open to question whether the tricks that are played 

 with horses' mouths are either so frequent, or so successful, as to 

 constitute an important element in the question of the value of the 

 evidence of age which is afforded by the teeth. Certainly, it is to be 

 hoped that the following description of what once was is no longer 

 applicable : 



In Yorkshire and the midland counties the young stock are generally 

 kept until rising three or four years old ; but many are sold at an 

 earlier age, particularly from the Lincolnshire fens. The method 

 practised by the Yorkshire farmers, in making up their two-year old 

 colts for sale, is to take them up from grass in the autumn, only a 

 week or two before the time at which they are to be sold, in order to 

 reduce their carcass, improve their coat, and teach them to lead. 

 They are then disposed of, with their full tails, to the dealers, who 

 afterwards shamefully make them up more according to art. In the 

 hands of their new masters their teeth undergo the operations already 

 described ; they are also docked and nicked, and, after being kept on 

 mashes made of bran, ground oats, or boiled corn, they are bought by 

 the London dealers, who sell them as if they were five years old. 

 They are then taken to immediate work, and in a few months many 

 of them are completely destroyed by premature and severe labour 

 for nothing ruins a colt more speedily and effectually than being 

 prematurely put to heavy or severe work. This drawing of the 

 teeth, however, is not a fraud practised on the London dealers, who 

 are, on the contrary, not only aware of the deception, but require it 

 to be done. 1 



1 Agricultural Survey of Yorkshire, North Riding, p. 277. 



