FARM ANIMALS 351 



hay is too dusty for horses, timothy being much 

 better. 



Care should be taken that no part of the harness 

 chafes the skin, or there may result sores that will be 

 hard to heal. Very cold bits often tear the skin of the 

 mouth and cause serious difficulty. Tight checking is 

 cruel and unnecessary. 



Training a Horse. As a colt easily forms habits 

 but never, or almost never, breaks one once formed, it 

 is important to begin the training of a horse early and 

 to devote care to it, if one wishes to rear a horse that is 

 tractable and reliable. The training should begin with 

 the trainer himself. If he cannot control himself, he 

 can never train a horse successfully. Firmness, gentle- 

 ness, steadiness, even temper, and self-control are nec- 

 essary characteristics of a good horse trainer. Care 

 should be taken to teach one command at a time, and 

 that one always meaning the same thing, and never to 

 give contradictory commands. " Whoa back " is a di- 

 rection that no horse could obey. A horse should be 

 trained to stand still during harnessing and loading; 

 in short, to await the word of command to start, and 

 to stand still after being stopped. 



A horse that is trained in the few necessary words of 

 command will show little need for the whip or the 

 jerked lines. 



SHEEP 



Sheep may be raised on the farm for two purposes, 

 mutton and wool. In America, until recent years, 

 wool has been the prime consideration in raising sheep, 

 and when the price of wool has been high, compara- 

 tively large profits have been made. But the growing 

 demand for mutton has turned the attention of farm- 



