THE STABLE. 
4: 
tions, not by attempting the cultivation of more 
acres than you can profitably attend to, but by en¬ 
riching, and rendering more productive by careful 
tillage, what you now have under management. 
Introduce the best systems of husbandry into your 
practice, the best seeds and the best implements; 
carefully harvest and lay up beyond the risk of 
injury or waste, your surplus crops, and hold them 
for the best probable market; avoid running in 
debt, and pay such as you have already contracted. 
With the adoption of such a system rigidly adhered 
to, the expiration of the ensuing five years may 
see you the most prosperous class within the Union, 
if you are not decidedly so at this present moment. 
THE STABLE.—No. 7. 
Vices .—In this No. we shall speak only of those 
vices which are exhibited in the stable (the vices of 
work and of the road will claim a separate num¬ 
ber), which are biting and kicking. It is true these 
are also seen out of the stable, but the danger aris¬ 
ing from them is usually only in the stable. Many 
horses will only bite and kick in the stable, al¬ 
though they will threaten to do so out of it. 
To the groom, and the gentlemen who drive their 
own horses, it is important that the horse should, 
as to these vices, be safe in himself, or that the 
person controlling him should have the power to 
make him harmless. Much, in this respect, de¬ 
pends on the groom, or the gentleman himself. 
His bad habits and vices, or his good temper and 
rude nee, will have much to do with those of the 
_ orse. A horse of great sagacity and high spirit, 
in the hands of an ill-tempered, violent, and brutal 
groom, might, and very likely would, become 
vicious in some respect. Indeed all those horses 
that are moderately vicious only as biters, are all, 
or nearly all, made so by violence and bad manage¬ 
ment. They are generally teased into the habit. 
It is natural that a horse should retaliate abuse, 
and when pinched and teased they know it, and 
as they do not understand a joke, make a seri¬ 
ous return for the fun of the groom. Such horses, 
however, never do harm but to repay abuse. 
Hence whipping does no good, and only makes 
them more violent and disposed to evil. Indeed it 
may be questioned if, for the vices of biting and 
kicking, a horse ever is improved by punishment. 
For casual misconduct only, will correction answer 
a good purpose. Habitual vices can only be over¬ 
come by kindness, and if this will not reach them, 
caution and the avoidance of danger are the only 
means of Deviating the difficulty. With vicfes of 
temper, punishment only makes bad worse, and the 
horse will in the end be apt to become ferocious. 
Horses will often put on the show of vice, will 
threaten to bite and to kick, will lear, and raise the 
hind foot, and pretend to strike with the fore, and 
champ their teeth, and yet it is all play. Mares 
are quite apt to do this in gentlemen’s or coaching 
stables If teased they may bite, but will only 
threaten if not teased, and indeed seem to threaten 
sometimes to avoid being teased, and at others to 
command attention and secure petting. Such horses 
should never be minded. Let them alone and they 
will do no harm. It is an evidence of spirit, and 
they have generally much energy and bottom. 
Horses are not unfrequently kickers and jitera 
only with other horses, and for this mares are 
more remarkable than horses. A vice of this kind 
can never be cured. Punish for it, and the punish¬ 
ment is forgotten in an hour, and the vice again 
indulged. With some horses it becomes a mania. 
They will slip their halters when the stable is 
locked up, and go round to the other horses, and 
bite and kick them unmercifully. Again, they will 
kick or bite strange or unfavorite horses, and not 
known ones. For all this there is no remedy but 
separation. The horse that slips or bleaks his 
halter to indulge his passion must be kept alone, or 
put into a close box stall; and those who dislike 
strangers must be worked and lie only with con¬ 
stant companions. Some horses will only kick 
and bite when brought to the shop to be shod, and 
then are furious. They fear a crowd, and have 
doubtless learned this from the performance of 
some operation, as breaking, castration, or docking 
and pricking, which has required several persons 
to do it. They recollect the pain inflicted formerly 
by a crowd, and fear it again. It will be found 
that they cannot be shod in the smithy; yet the 
smith may go alone to the stable and shoe them in 
quietness without danger. 
Stall for a Biter.—Fig. 8 . 
Our cut this month illustrates a method of manag¬ 
ing a horse that is a vicious biter. For many rea¬ 
sons it is often desirable to keep a biter. Generally 
they are the best of horses, and have no other 
vice. Not uncommonly, under the management of 
a single groom, they are kind and affectionate, bu: 
to strangers are savage and dangerous. Of course, 
they are never to be trusted. If they cannot be 
rendered harmless, they are worse then useless; 
indeed vice is the worst kind of worthlessness, for 
worthlessness has its degrees, as it may be harm¬ 
less or dangerous. Our cut shows a method of 
