340 [Assembly 



Soiling the Horse. 



Hitherto I have confined myself to milch cows. I propose now to 

 treat of soiling as applied to horses. It may be thought that I lay 

 too great s^^ress on the importance of soiling; but I think the day is 

 not far distant, when all will soil animals, if not from choice, from 

 necessity, as the value of land is daily increasing in the vicinity of our 

 cities, and it will soon be found that agricultural pursuits will not 

 afford remunerating profits to the farmer, who fences 100 acres in 10 

 acre fields, for the purpose of keeping 10 milch cows, when 15 acres, 

 properly tilled, will keep the same in much finer condition. 



Equus, the horse, according to naturalists, consists of several dif- 

 ferent animals, as the Equus Caballus, Eqifus Asinus, Equus Zebra, 

 &c. Of these species the horse is the most valuable, docile, largest, 

 and most extensively distributed over the universe; he is but one of 

 the very few which existed in the tertiary periods of geology, that 

 has been preserved to the present day. The first herd of horses from 

 vvliich our stoi k has been derived, proceeded originally from Mount 

 Ararat into Asia and Africa. In Mesopotamia on the river Euphra- 

 tes, and in the deseris of Syria there are tribes very rich in fine horses, 

 and the reason is that they have fertile plains and valleys, abounding 

 in green grass and luxuriant herbage, upon which the horse can feed 

 almost the whole year, inducing rapid growth and corresponding 

 vigor of constitution; and besides, these people take unbounded care 

 of their animals. Among the Bedouins, when a colt is foaled, it is 

 never permitted to be dropped upon the ground, as is the practice of 

 our people, but is held in their arms for hours, washed, hugged and 

 treated as if it were a child. 



No horses were found on the continent of America when first dis- 

 covered; two mares and a stud were brought here by the Spaniards, 

 and from them have descended the countless multitudes that now run 

 wild over the immense plains and pampas of South America; clearly 

 proving by their immense increase, that a southern climate abound- 

 ing with rich grasses, is particularly congenial to them. The charac- 

 ter of a horse is entirely changed by food and climate; although he 

 enjoys the burning region of a southern clime, still he cannot en- 

 dure the other extreme. In Iceland wc all know he dwindles from 

 a magnificent animal to a miserable long-haired dwarf ; in Lapland 

 and Kamschatka, he does not exist even in that deformed shape. 

 The best of 'the wild Asiatic races are supposed to be those inhabit- 

 ing Tscherkessie, Abassi, and the slopes of the Caucasian mountains; 



