196 THE horse's rescue. 



There are many animals that eat grain, but none are 

 stiff and lame like the horse and mule. All animals 

 di'ink water, and it does not affect any but these two 

 species in this way. How is this, you wonderfully 

 knowing men ? I should think you would appeal to 

 the creator to have an improvement made on these two 

 species of animals. According to your reasoning, 

 there is something wrong in their construction, or you 

 should use more reason and judgment about feeding 

 grain and giving them water, knowing, as you claim, 

 so much about the cause of all this. Suppose you 

 experiment a little and stop giving your horses grnin 

 and water, or a very little, and keep their feet ironed, 

 and that by a botch; you can tell soon where the 

 cause is. They feed all kinds of cattle, young and 

 old, the strongest kind, and they are tied up and have 

 but little exercise ; yet they do not get stiff by an}^- 

 thing they eat and drink. The ox is kept shod in 

 many places the whole year round, and fed grain, and 

 heavy too, and I have seen them when warm drink a 

 half-barrel of water at once, and have shoes on at the 

 same time, and not get stiff. My father lived among 

 the rough hills of the state of Pennsylvania. He 

 kept them, shod and fed them, an J yet I never saw 

 him have a stiff or sprained ox. He worked these 

 oxen. The ox's foot is split; the shoe is in two 

 parts, and there is no contraction. The lever does get 

 long. It does not effect the ox as it does the horse. 

 The lever on the ox's foot does not extend beyond the 

 useless growth of the hoof. On the horse it is very 

 different. 



After I get this work from the press I am ready to 



