132 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
most care that can be given fine hairs will some- 
times pass through the strainer, and one of these 
in a pat of butter might cost a first-rate customer. 
Horse Papers for Farmers.— No. 4. 
— • — ■ 
It will be understood, that in the hints for the 
feeding of the colt from the time of his concep- 
tion until he is a year old, I have had in view, not 
the average colt of the breeding farm,bnt a special 
animal that is intended for the personal service 
of the farmer and his family, for probably 20 
years; an animal sprung from a noble sire and 
capable of a far higher development than the 
average work horse of the country; — not bred 
for sale, but expected to pay for extra care, extra 
food, and extra thought, by a long life of willing 
and efficient service. With such au animal, the 
question of education is hardly less important 
than that of food, for we not only want strength 
and vigor, but the courage and intelligence with- 
out which, strength and vigor will lose half their 
usefulness, and become a source of danger. 
The horse that we have under consideration 
is to be the companion of our children, a helper 
in our labors, and a willing servant of our 
" women folks." These relations require that 
he should be docile, tractable, willing and good 
tempered, and the preparation for all these is 
best commenced when he is not more than a 
month old. 
He should, even at this early age, become ac- 
customed to the caresses of old and j-oung. 
By the time he is six weeks old, a light halter 
may be put on his head, and after he gets used 
to this, a leading-strap may be buckled into it, 
and he may be very genlly coaxed to follow a 
man who leads his mother at the same time. If 
he is disposed to pull back, he must be taught, 
then and there, that this is no part of the pro- 
gramme. Don't try to pull him in the opposite 
direction, but stand as firm as a rock until he 
gives up pulling and slackens the rein of his 
own accord. Then fondle him and induce him 
to step forward if possible. Perfect good tem- 
per and indomitable patience at this lesson will 
be worth more than a year's pounding and 
" breaking-in," when he is five years old. He 
has to learn at some time in his life that man is 
his master, and ho will be a better horse all his 
days if he learns at the same time, that man is 
his friend. This lesson, once fairly implanted 
in his mind, will never be lost, unless as a result 
of inexcusable ill-treatment. 
Mr. Charles L. Sharpless, of Philadelphia, 
breaks his colts to harness at the age of six 
weeks, and he claims that even if they never 
have a strap on them again until they are old 
enough for work, they seem never to forget this 
early teaching, and to take kindly to the har- 
ness from the first. He has a very light har- 
ness and a pair of small wheels, with light but 
strong shafts attached to the axle. Going into 
the pasture with his apparatus, he takes the colt 
by the halter and leads him up quietly with his 
mother, to inspect every part of the gearing. 
Each part of the harness is subjected to his 
examination, and is then put quietly into its 
place, and loosely buckled. He is allowed to 
walk around in these until he becomes thor- 
oughly accustomed to them. This part of the 
operation may require several repeated attempts, 
as the greatest care must be taken to neither 
frighten nor disgust the pupil. After he has be- 
come perfectly comfortable and "at home" in 
the harness, the man leading him drags the 
wheels about with him in the field, until he pays 
no attention to the shafts striking against his 
sides. After this, they are gently passed over 
his back and lis is made to walk between them. 
Then they are passed through the tugs and he 
is allowed gradually to feel their weight. Then 
the traces are made fast and he is allowed to 
draw more and more of the load for himself un- 
til he has become a tolerably good harness horse. 
In another instance that has come under my 
notice, a colt that had been taught this much 
was daily hitched to his drag and left to him- 
self in a small barn-yard, and it was astonishing 
to see how soon he learned to manage it. In 
going under an open shed in the yard, the 
whoel caught against a post, and he turned and 
looked at it, and experimented with it, until, 
after several attempts, he backed it out of the 
way, and came in clear. 
Of course his groom, a very careful man, 
watched him carefully, and took care that he 
did not become frightened and injure himself, 
but he soon learned to allow for his cart-wheels 
in moving about in the yard, as though they 
were a part of himself. At times he was al- 
lowed to amuse himself with a whiffle-tree dan- 
gling by the traces against his heels, and again 
with the loose traces striking against his legs. 
All this requires very little time and is rather 
an interesting amusement, than a task, and it 
insures an education of the 3 T oung animal which 
no amount of rough riding and breaking-in 
could accomplish. 
I believe that the coming generation of farm- 
ers will make more use of the saddle than their 
fathers do, and that no family horse will be con- 
sidered perfectly satisfactory unless he is a tol- 
erable saddle horse. Education for the saddle 
as well as for the harness, should be commenced 
with the foal. He should learn to bear the 
weight of a child on his back, and to carry it 
about without being alarmed. Both the weight 
and the. sight of the human being in that posi- 
tion are novel, and should not be too suddenly 
presented. Of course, a colt only six weeks old 
should have only a very small child placed on 
its back. The little shaver may be taken in his 
father's arms and slowly insinuated into his 
place without danger of a fracas, although the 
atlempt may have to be repeated many times 
before the colt understands what is wanted. 
In training, it may bu set down as a universal 
rule, with young animals or with old, that, un- 
less they have been at some time grossly ill-treat- 
ed, they only need to understand what is wanted 
of them, to do it at once if within their power. 
A colt that lias been safely carried through 
its first year — well bred, wall trained, and 
abundantly fed — starts his second year with a 
fair chance of making constant progress with 
even ordinary treatment. All that he now re- 
quires, until he is old enough for use, is good 
pasture in summer, and good hay in winter, al- 
though a little grain, (say two quarts of oats a 
day,) "to keep him going," will tell with good 
effect on his size and on his muscular develop- 
ment. He will probably be better fitted for 
work at four years old with it, than at five years 
old without it, and the saving of a year will 
more than pay for the extra feed. 
During the whole time of the animal's growlh 
he will be benefited by being made a compan- 
ion, and it will be all the better if the pasture 
is near the house, so that he can have daily at- 
tention. He will soon learn to come for a piece 
of bread or sugar, and to stand for a little comb- 
ing of his mane and tail and the smoothing of 
his legs and back. It is hardly to be expected 
that a busy farmer will have much time for ex- 
ercising a young horse before he is old enough 
to work, but any attention paid him in the way 
of leading or driving about (without a vehicle) 
will help in the final training. However well 
developed he may be, no horse that is not fully 
thorough-bred (and brought up in a racing sta- 
ble, at that,) should be put to work before he is 
four years old. 
Castration is performed with more safety, and 
more easity, just before weaning than at a later 
period ; but if the colt lacks development in his 
fore-quarters — has too light a neck, or too low 
withers — he will improve in these respects if 
allowed to go "entire" until a year or more old. 
It would be useless to give here the directions 
for performing the operation, as it should al- 
ways be entrusted to a skilled hand, and skilled 
hands could better instruct me than I them. AU 
that I desire is to urge that castration be per- 
formed. Once in a thousand times there may be 
a half-bred horse raised that is worthy to be a 
stallion, but the chances are very strongly 
against him, and it would be better in the end 
that the race of mongrels be not perpetuated* 
That old rule should be ever before us: "Like 
produces like, or the likeness of some ancestor." 
Let us not run the risk of producing the like- 
ness of a cold-blooded ancestor. If we have got 
one service of a thorough-bred, we can get an- 
other when necessary, and my own conviction 
(based on some experience) is so slrong that the 
sire should be really thorough-bred, that I would 
sooner pay $100 to have a mare, that is fit to 
breed from at all, served by a "four-miler" 
than to have her served by a half-bred for noth- 
ing ; it would pay in the end. Any one who 
will look at the carriage horses belonging to 
even the richest men in the large cities, or who 
will go through the city horse markets looking 
for strictly fine carriage teams, will realize the 
fact that carelessness of breeding has made the 
race nearly extinct. He will see plenty of " road- 
sters," warranted to show a pace that is of no 
use except for very fast pleasure driving;, but he 
will bo lucky if he sees one really fine pair of 
well framed and stylish carriage horses. If he 
does, and if the animals are free from all defects 
and well broken, he will find them held at fabu- 
lous prices, even though they may not be able 
to trot a mile in less than six «r seven minutes. 
I believe that three-quarter-bred, well matched, 
well trained and stylish horses — such as may be 
raised from good, honest, cold-blooded gransl- 
dams — will find, henceforth, a ready sale at 
$2,000 and upward per pair at four years old. I 
also believe that (accidents aside) such animals 
may be bred with certainty ; and that the chances 
for getting more would be as great as for get- 
ting less. This sort of horse breeding would pay 
much better than the lottery business of breed- 
ing for fast trotting— where one horse in a hun- 
dred is worth $1,000, and one in a thousand 
$5,000, and nine-tenths of the balance $150. At 
the same time, if breeding to thorough-bred 
stallions became the rule rather than the excep- 
tion, the average loorking power of all the horses 
in the country would be doubled by reason of 
the greater briskness, power, stamina and lon- 
gevity that "blood" imparts. The question of 
the influence of blood on fast trotting is a dis- 
puted one. If I were to set about the production 
of this class of animals I would raise only 
thorough-breds, and develop the trotting action 
to the utmost iu successive generations. Others, 
who have peculiar views about the " obliquity 
of the os calcis" advocate the mongrel theory. 
Without stopping to argue the question here, I 
may confidently assert that for the guidance of 
farmers my rule for breeding is the safe one. 
