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THE ILLINOIS F^RMEH. 



261 



deferring the weaning till after the 

 shearing, as it cannot •well take place 

 soon enough for the milk to subside to 

 any great degree; consequently the udder 

 would be very susceptible of injury, and 

 which may occur in washing or shearing 

 I do think (unless especial care is taken 

 in driving to the place of washing, and 

 allowing them to get cool before commen- 

 cing) this to be the most dangerous op- 

 eration of the two. Again; if the lambs 

 are allowed to remain a few days after 

 shearing, they take cold; the lamb's 

 sucking would in some measure be a 

 means of preventing its spreading to that 

 extent it otherwise would. On remov- 

 ing the ewes they should be put into a 

 bare pasture, and at a distance, where 

 the bleating cannot be heard by either ; 

 otherwise both will be much excited, 

 taking a longer time to settle and con- 

 tent themselves. After a day or two 

 the udders should be carefully attended 

 to, and those that are full and hard — 

 causing stiffness in the ewes' walking — 

 should be occasionally milked. As soon 

 as they have forgotten their lambs, and 

 the milk is reabsorbed, I believe it a 

 good plan to dip them in a solution of 

 arsenic, soft soap, pearl-ash, and black 

 brimstone, to free them from the irrita- 

 tion and annoyance of insects. 



••» ■ 



Blood Borscs. 



A writer in the Spirit of the Times says : 



The following are some of the many rea- 

 sons why the stock bred, or warm blooded 

 racer, is vastly superior to, and more valuable 

 than the stock of the common horse ; 



1st. They have more and better brains, or 

 more sense — more intelligence — and their 

 disposition is more kind and tractable. 



2d. When pr9perly viewed they have a 

 refining and elevating influence — man with 

 his refined sensibilities has semi-socialized 

 the horse, and now he seems to be happy, as 

 he shares the kind feeling and ministers to 

 the happiness of man : "As a man soweth 

 so shall he also reap;" where Deity creates, 

 'tis surely man's dignity to cultivate. 



3d. They are more free from disease ; their 

 action is more free and elastic ; their form is 

 more beautiful ; and their carraige is more 

 elegant and showy. 



4th. They are more active and can endure 

 excessive heat much better. A fine blood 

 horse can travel long distances rapidly in 

 the hottest weather, when a common horse 

 would probably full dead under the same ex- 

 ercise." 



5th. They live to a much greater age. A 

 common horse rarely lives to be of any ser- 

 vice beyond fifteen or sixteen years of age, 

 but a high-bred, warm-blooded one is fit for 

 good service for a much longer time, if he 

 has been treated as every man ought to use 

 his horse — some so-called men are greater 

 brutes than their horses. 



Gth. Their superior strength, ability to 

 carry heavy weights, and endure under it j 

 their courage and bravery, fleetness and du- 

 rability, render them far more efiicient for 

 cavalry, express, or general purposes, in the 

 precise rates that they are judiciously im- 



bued with pure blood ; invariably evincing 

 more gratitude to, and attachment for, a kind 

 master. Pause candid reader, and look for 

 a moment at tlie evidence to sustain this pro- 

 position ; the weight carried by an English 

 hunting horse varies from 182 to 288 

 pounds ; this must be borne over all inequal- 

 ities of ground, hedges, ditches, and every 

 other obstruction, and nothing; but pure 

 blood, with sufficient height and reach, can 

 carry the weight, go the pace and do the 

 work quite well. 



In the days of English staging, coaches 

 containing from twelve to fifteen passengers, 

 in addition to the guard and coachman, and 

 from half a ton to a ton and a half of bag- 

 gage, were driven from fifteen to seventeen 

 miles an hour. The horses by which such 

 heavy and rapid work was done were as near- 

 ly tlioroiigh hred as could possibly be pro- 

 cured : nothing but these could have done 

 it once. That speed and power the people 

 demanded before railroads were formed : it 

 had to be done, and it was effected by there 

 being thorough bred horses found and ap- 

 plied to staging purposes. The average 

 weight of an English huzzar, or light Dra- 

 goon, accoutred and in heavy marching 

 order, is 250 pounds ; that of a heavy Dra- 

 goon, 280 pounds, and that of a ligbt 

 guardsman, or cuirassier, 308 pounds. — 

 Great power is of course required to carry 

 these ponderous masses, but great speed is 

 also required to move them, for unless they 

 can be launched at a tremendous rate, all 

 the horses being so equal in their pace and 

 stride that the line is kept perfectly dressed 

 and even to the moment when tbe shock is 

 to be given, the charge is a failure. To 

 attain this immense power and great speed, 

 even for a short time under such crushing 

 weight, in the actual charge, and to combine 

 with it the power of staying long distances, 

 coming again quickly, moving actively, and 

 enduring severe distress, nothing but the 

 highest possible degree of blood that can be 

 combined with bone, size, shape, and action, 

 sufficient to endure such weight, can succeed 

 at all. This can be and is obtained by the 

 crossing choice blood stallions of the proper 

 build and style on proper selected mares to 

 the second or third generation. In the 

 Russian war the light brigade of Lord Car- 

 digan, which made that prodigious charge 

 and retreat, each of a mile and a half, were 

 mounted on horses that were three parts 

 blood. It is safe to say had they only been 

 half-bred, not one horse would have got back 

 into the British lines, and if they had not 

 possessed any pure blood at all, they would 

 all have been cut down before they reached 

 the llussian batteries. 



The heavy brigade of Brigadier General 

 Scarlett, which rode through the Russian 

 troopers in fourfold force, as if they had 

 been lines of paste-board, were mounted on 

 chargers having two crosses of pure blood, 

 or as nearly as possible. 



Nothing but hlood could have accomplish- 

 ed either feat ; and it is Well to remember 

 that when cavalry in the deadly shock — 

 both being equally brave and equally well 

 led — that cavalry which is horsed on char- 

 gers ot the same weight, but of inferior 

 blood and stride, must go down like grass be- 

 fore the scythe. On the turf contending 



against each other, on the field of battle 

 facing the death dealing column, on the road 

 that heavy weights with great speed, or un- 

 der the saddle with heavy weights and long 

 continued high speed, we are convinced by 

 authentic records or observation, of the 

 superior power and speed, endurance and 

 courage, sagacity and attachment of the 

 thorough breds, and that they only being 

 well qualified for the above uses, they are 

 the best able to do any thing else. This is 

 the pride and triumph of blood, that it can 

 do every thing for which it is intfended quite 

 well, and nothing short of it can do so. 



7th. The horse having and exhibiting 

 evidences of his kindred to the pure blood 

 horse will always command a higher price in 

 the market. Ignorance, prejudice, and vari- 

 ous other causes, prompt some men to cry 

 down hlood, yet these very same — in nearly 

 every instance where they have a horse to 

 sell or advertise, take a very short trace to 

 some noted thoroughbred, or exhibit him at 

 an ^agricaltural fair with a manufactured 

 pedigree of a "blacksmith shop bill." We 

 have had "thoroughbred horses" (?) not a 

 thousand miles away, that were represented 

 as no less chan the great grand-son of the 

 great English Eclipse himself, and they only 

 about three years of age. There's a better 

 day a coming, the day already dawns, the 

 shadows flee away. Truth crushed to earth 

 will rise again. To a lover of a horse his 

 financial value is only a nominal or secondary 

 consideration, he loves him for his own sake; 

 to him "a thing of beauty is a joy forever ;" 

 others regard in their horse great bulk with- 

 out corresponding excellence, and matter re- 

 gardless of life or spirit. Let such a one 

 study this subject, search the records, weigh 

 the evidence, reason calmly, and decide with 

 an impartial and unprejudiced mind ; not 

 like the man that may say, — "I won't beheve 

 if you do convince me." 



The true office and utility of the thorough 

 bred horse is to raise the standard of speed 

 spirit, and endurance, which can result only 

 from bhod, in horses for all and for every 

 purpose — the road, the hunting field, the 

 shock of the battle, if we must have war; 

 or pomp, show and beauty ; for speed, for 

 courage, for heavy, long-continued every-day 

 service, and if bountifiilly fed, well groomed, 

 carefully housed, and well driven, will endure 

 for many years. To breed judiciously from 

 thoroughbred horses will raise the progeny 

 in excellence, utility, longevity, style, action, 

 beauty, appearance and value ; confine your 

 breeding to grade stock, and instead of im- 

 provement, er even "holding your own," 

 your stock will go downwards all the time. 



Editor of the Farmer: — I have been 

 told that stock in various parts of the State 

 are suffering much for want of food, and 

 that many have perished of starvation. — 

 This does not speak much in favor of man's 

 humanity. We know that winter always 

 follows summer and autumn, and that some- 

 times we have long and severe winters, in 

 which large stores of fodder are required for 

 stock. Every farmer knows these facts, and 

 he knows, too, that the spring, summer and 

 autumn seasons are the time when the food 

 for cattle must be provided. Our soils will 

 produce every kind of food required for 

 stock. If one variety fails, another can be 



