134 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



Re.mouxts 



The system of remount as applied in N(jr\vay 

 is peculiar. The necessary horses are delivered 

 by the owners of certain farms, who 

 are legally bound to supply them. 

 This b(jnd, or obligation, is \'ery 

 ancient, and dates back jjrobabh' to 

 the time when the nobles were 

 obliged in times of war to furnish 

 their sovereign with a certain num- 

 ber of horse and foot soldiers. 



In Sweden, where the number of 

 military horses is about si.\ thousand, 

 they have an annual need of five 

 hundred and forty remoimts, which 

 are all bought in the interior of the 

 country, at an age x'arying from three 

 to six )'eai\s ; part of them are formed 

 immediately into a corps, the rest 

 being sent to the remoimt stations. 



France needs annually fifteen 

 thousand young horses ; those for 

 the cavalry are bought when three years and 

 a half old and sent to the stations, whereas the 

 draft horses are five years old when bought, 



and are then sent directly to 

 the regiments. These horses 

 are chiefly drawn from Nor- 

 mandy. The French remount 

 stations differ from those of 

 nearly all other nations. 

 Horses are there trained and 

 delivered, properly taught, to 

 the regiments, whereas in 

 nearly all other countries food 

 and proper care is all that the 

 governments give to their 

 remounts. In fact, in some 

 countries there is a practice of allowing con- 

 tractors to feed and care for the young horses. 



Exi-.ucisF, IN Drawing 



Kaisixo the Leg of a Restive Horse 



The French government takes the greatest 

 ]3ains to favor the production of good animals, 

 as the country is lacking in good stock. It 

 has e\en introduced a system 

 of premiums for remounts, 

 which amounted in 1899 to 

 one hundred and twenty-five 

 thousand francs ($25,000). 

 These premiums are in pro- 

 portion to the good cjualities 

 of the animals, but they can- 

 not go beyond twenty-five 

 hundred francs (;?500) per 

 horse. The price of a remount 



Digitized by IVIicrosoft® 



