CHAPTER XVI. 

 THE HORSE. 



A few words may not be out of place here with regard to the 

 horse of the >iarm, as every dairyman, large or small, must keep 

 horses,, more or less in number, to enable him to carry on the work 

 of the farm successfully. The breeds of horses most suited to a dairy 

 farm are largely a matter of taste or convenience of those who use 

 them, and the purpose for which they are used. As a rule, however, 

 it is generally conceded that the horse that a man can ride, drive 

 in his buggy, and that will draw, say, half a ton with ease in a spring- 

 van, is the most suitable horse for the dairy farmer to keep on his 

 farm. Such an animal is certainly the most profitable. How to breed 

 a horse of this description may not be easily defined, as there a^re a 

 number of ways of explaining an accident and a good hackney is 

 very much an accident of birth, hence they are very rare indeed. But 

 to return to the useful farm horse. This animal is sometimes pro- 

 duced by mating an active draught mare with a thoroughbred racing 

 stallion. Low-set, nuggety mares of the Shetland Island type have 

 often, when mated with blood stallions, thrown very useful farm 

 horses. 



The feeding of horses whether plough horses, spring-van, or 

 hackney is conducted on quite different principles from that of dairy 

 cattle. There are several reasons for this, as first the different con- 

 struction of the stomach of the animals, and the very different pur- 

 poses which horses and cattle have to subserve. In order to feed 

 and treat horses properly so as to get the greatest use of them, and 

 still to keep them in good health and condition, some knowledge of 

 the structure of this fine animal is necessary in the interests of the 

 animal and its owner. 



As has been stated elsewhere, cattle are so constructed that they 

 can take in rapidly a large quantity of food, and then retire and 

 bring up this food in small balls to be re-cheAved before finally tak- 

 ing it down again to be digested. For this purpose they are fur- 

 nished with four stomachs. The first and largest, called the paunch, 

 is used for storing up the crude food till it can be brought up again; 

 this is termed chewing the cud. Then the food passes successively 

 through the three other stomachs, the fourth being the true stomach, 

 corresponding with that of the horse and the pig. Cattle, therefore, 

 require a large space for their digestive organs, and bulky ford to 

 fill them. Hence they are comparatively large, unwieldy animals 

 in it adapted for rapid or long-continued exertion, but admirably lit ted 

 for forming flesh and fat. and for giving milk. Their food requires 

 then to be bulky, and should contain a sufficiency of water and fat- 

 forming material-. 



Horses, on the other hand, have, for their size, a very small single 

 Momach, and are fitted for muscular exertion, whether for rapid 

 motion or for pulling heavy weights. The term, therefore, "good 

 condition," has not the >anu- meaning when applied to a horse, a 

 dairy cow, or a pig. For hoi>e- it means lungs well developed, 

 limb> Bound, and the muscles all large, and in their outlines no vi-ihle 

 Miperflfl.nis fat. and a -nieral fitness for exertion. For dairy cattle 

 it mean> the bnes well covered with lle>h without t;io much nt. 

 i he outline angular, and the bones fine and flat, showing little muscle. 

 The pig. like the cow, can be better judged by its hindquarters and 

 head, which should be we'll developed, the >h>ulders beinvr only ju^T 

 large enough to gi\v contituti"iial vi^or. The belly should be neither 



TO. 



