remembered, of course, that the city horse, 

 being used to high feed, camiot have all 

 his grain taken away from him, especially 

 if he be an old horse, without falling into 

 a worse condition than his former one. 

 Unless he is a young horse in rich pasturage, 

 he must recei\'e some grain every day, and 

 the old horse will need a good deal, per- 

 haps one-half of his usual r^ition. 



Another thing to be looked out for is the 

 annoyance from flies and mosciuitoes. 

 This is so great, except in farms situated 

 on high ground, that a horse, especially a 

 city horse, cannot be turned out all day or 

 even all night in a pasture or field without 

 losing more than he would gain. In pas- 

 tures of northern New England, where the 

 land lies high and the nights are cool, 

 horses can be turned out day and night; 

 but within thirty or fifty miles of Boston, 

 in midsummer, there is hardly more than 

 an hour or so, in the w^hole tw^enty-four 

 hours, when a horse can be turned out 

 without being driven almost crazy by flies 

 in the daytime, and mosquitoes at night. 



VACATION BY PIECEMEAL 



One way of giving a horse a vacation 

 is to increase the number of horses at 

 work, for any firm or concern, so as to 

 permit each horse to lay off one day out 

 of the six working days, or to work half 

 a day only for one or more w^orking days 

 in the week. For example, suppose a 

 given concern has work enough to keep 

 four three-hundred-dollar horses busy. Let 

 them add one horse to the equipment, so 

 that there will be five horses for the work. 

 This would relieve toil-worn legs and feet 

 and over-strained bodies and digestion, 

 would lessen somewhat the amount of 

 grain required^for each horse, and would 

 greatly reduce the annual depreciation 

 in the \alue of each horse. In this way, 

 it is speaking within bounds to say, that 

 the working life of all the horses would 

 be prolonged from an average of six years 

 to an a\erage of ten years. 



It should be remembered also that a 

 horse in good condition and spirits is far 

 more efticient, and will get over far more 

 ground in a day, than one that is jaded 

 or stiff from overwork; and besides, the 



good, active horse tends to make the 

 driver a better and more efficient employee. 

 Another consideration is the advertising 

 value of a good horse in good condition and 

 spirits. This increases every year, and in 

 cities where work-horse parades are held 

 it increases very fast. Customers look 

 more and more at the horse used, directly 

 or indirectly, in supplying their w^ants, 

 and a fine horse gives an appearance of 

 success and up-to-dateness that is worth 

 much more than it costs. 



VACATIONS FOR POOR 

 MEN'S HORSES 



A PROBLEM 



(Extract from a letter from the Ohio 

 Humane Society.) 



" A difficult problem in this vacation 

 work is that of the poor owner of a horse 

 who earns a living for a family by running 

 an express wagon or peddling. As a rule, 

 he is too poor to grant the horse a vaca- 

 tion; but we hope to provide for him 

 later." 



The same problem confronts everyone 

 who tries to help in this direction. The 

 only way to meet the situation seems to 

 be to provide some good " second-hand 

 horses that may be lent — under reasonable 

 and proper restrictions — as substitutes for 

 the horses that need rest. 



Red Acre Farm, the Home for Horses, 

 at Stow, twenty-five miles from Boston, 

 has numerous reconstructed horses that 

 it lends to people in that neighborhood, 

 where they can frequently be inspected 

 by the agents of the Farm. The Farm has 

 no horses for lending to city owners; but 

 it is ahvays ready to give free rest and 

 treatment to the horses of poor men. 



A horse may be sent by anybody at 

 any time to Red Acre Farm, with or 

 without notice, and he will be cared for. 

 This Association acts as the Boston Agent 

 of the Farm. 



Pine Ridge, at Dedham, the annex of 

 the Animal Rescue League (51 Carver 

 Street, Boston), will also take poor men's 

 horses, free of charge, for a vacation and 

 for treatment. Pine Ridge is only ten 

 miles from the city, and is therefore con- 

 venienth' situated for this purpose. 



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