38 NATURAL ADAPTATION REGARDED. 



NATURAL ADAPTATION REGARDED. 



This remarkable adaptation to climate and condition, 

 as seen not only in the animals named, to the wants of the 

 people among whom we find them, is also wonderfully 

 exemplified in the horse, showing great size, weight and 

 strength, mild, docile and patient disposition, exactly 

 adapted for the slow, slavish drudgery of the plow or cart. 

 His anatomical structure and coarse, heavy muscle show 

 him to be fitted for and adapted only for strong but slow 

 action. The fiery, quick, active horse, on the contrary, has 

 not only a form adapted for speed and great endurance ; he 

 has a more oblique and thinner shoulder, longer arm and 

 hip, and more lung power. His whole structure is of a 

 finer, lighter and stronger character. He does not put on 

 fat easily, and is more sensitive, intelligent and active, simu- 

 lating the grey-hound in appearance and action, compared 

 to the heavy, slow Newfoundland dog of an entirely con- 

 trary conformation. From these extremes there is an endless 

 variety of modifications, showing not only marked traces 

 of distinction of family, for strength, activity, endurance 

 and action, but in disposition,. ranging from the smallest 

 Shetlander to the large Norman or Flemish horses, in size, 

 intelligence, temper and density of texture from that of 

 the quick, fiery barb, to the slow, dull, sluggish cart horse. 

 Hence the necessity of selecting the larger, slower and more 

 patient character for slow, heavy, slavish work, and the 

 light, active, hardy, enduring character for great fleetness 

 and endurance, as, for example, shown in the use of light, 

 hardy, lithe, active horses used on the desert or plains of 

 our own country, for speed and endurance, and the large, 

 slow, Norman or Flemish horse for slow, heavy work. In 

 a word, anything of an ordinary discrimination should 

 designate the necessity of selecting horses for the work they 

 are by nature best adapted. Want of regard to this law is 

 the cause of not only much annoyance, but of great loss to 

 farmers and others. 



This is not only true in the selection and use of light- 

 boned, sensitive, delicate constitutioned horses for slow, 

 heavy work, or subjecting high-strung, nervous-tempered 

 ones for such a purpose, when slower, stronger and more 

 patient animals should be used. So, in relation to using 



