534 
muscular breed may be employed. Strength 
and adaptability are naturally of greater 
consideration than purity of pedigree. But 
there seems to be a disposition to breed 
certain recognised strains, and the peri- 
odical shows of working dogs held in 
Belgium are doing excellent work in this 
direction. 
Interesting statistics were published some 
months ago in The Kennel Gazette, pointing to 
the immense number of dogs engaged in 
draught work in Belgium. It was stated 
that at the smallest estimate some 150,000 
dogs were so employed throughout the 
Kingdom, and that each dog worked 300 
days in the year; the value of each dog’s 
earnings was estimated at not less than a 
franc a day, totalling 45,000,000 francs per 
annum. This is equivalent to an earning 
capacity of £1,800,000. But large as these 
earnings appear, they do not represent the 
actual number of dogs now used in Belgium 
for traction. The return quoted was made 
in 1901, and allowing for the rate of increase 
indicated in the previous eight years, and 
assuming that the increase since I90I has 
been proportionate, there ought now to be 
300,000 working dogs, earning in the year 
£3,600,000 sterling. 
In the agricultural districts of Belgium, 
Holland, Germany, and France, dogs are 
commonly used for light draught work. 
The writer has even seen them engaged in 
drawing the plough. In Paris and Berlin 
they are less frequently employed, but occa- 
sionally in the early morning they may be 
noticed attached to small delivery carts 
straining willingly and powerfully at their 
auxiliary traces, their masters taking an 
easier position between the shafts. 
Draught Dogs in England.—Many per- 
sons not yet very old, can remember 
a time when dogs were commonly used 
for draught work in England. They were 
most often to be seen hauling or helping 
to haul bakers’, butchers’, or milkmaids’ 
carts, or tinkers’ barrows, and the phrase 
“tinkers’ cur” has a direct historical appli- 
cation. Two or more muscular mongrels 
might be employed to drag a light vehicle, 
and it was a frequent sight in the parks and 
THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 
country roads to see a brace of dogs of the 
better sort harnessed to children’s carriages. 
Costers would often take out their sweet- 
hearts on a Sunday afternoon in a chaise 
drawn by dogs. At one time dogs did 
almost all the traction labour that is now 
done by the donkey, and there is no room 
for doubt that they were so shamefully 
treated and overworked that it was necessary 
for the law to prohibit their employment. 
In the light of our modern knowledge we 
recognise that a wiser plan of averting ill- 
' Thefe children appear to | 
ride very quietly. Dogs are — 
capable of drawing a great | 
weight, and two of them may | 
travel feveral miles in a day | 
with a child or two ina chaife. 
In Newfoundland dogs are ufed 
for drawing wood from the fo- 
refts tothe houfes, 
FROM “ TRIFLES FOR CHILDREN” (LONDON, 1801). 
usage would have been the one now adopted 
in Belgium of offering prizes for the best 
kept hauling dogs, rather than altogether 
to prohibit their use as draught animals. 
Many of our larger breeds such as the Mastiff, 
the St. Bernard, the Newfoundland, and the 
Great Dane, would benefit incalculably in 
an increase of sinew and stamina if within 
limits they were allowed to do strenuous. 
work. One can well imagine how majestic 
a team of Irish Wolfhounds would look in 
a suitably appointed equipage. 
