244 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
limbs, and to the weight of bone in them. 
The legs are flat, with hard firm tendons, and 
are remarkably free from bony growths, 
splints, spavins, etc. A fancy which we can 
hardly approve, has led to the encouragement 
of an enormous growth of hair upon the 
legs and fetlocks, and this is now regarded 
as indicative of purity of blood. Heavy 
manes and forelocks are also prized. 
The traveller meets with magnificent 
teams of these horses, or lialf-breds in all the 
large cities of England and Scotland, and the 
American is amazed at the loads which they 
move with obvious ease. On level, well 
paved streets, or on macadamized roads, a 
single horse will draw and is often loaded 
with 3 to 5 tons. Two tons to the single 
horse, and four to six for pairs is usual. We 
do not load our heaviest teams like that in 
this country—but it is surely economical in 
every way. The demand for heavy horses 
is constantly increasing in our large cities, 
and for this class of horses there is always a 
quick sale. They are easy keepers, and cost 
no more to raise until they are five than 
lighter horses, which require more care and 
training, while the Clyde colt at three will 
earn his own living, though unfit for market. 
As their name implies, these horses origi¬ 
nated in the valley of the River Clyde, whose 
banks for miles are lined with the greatest 
ship yards of the world, and in those yards 
large numbers of these magnificent horses 
are advantageously employed, and where 
they take great pride in them, as one of the 
characteristic products of this famous, fertile 
and romantic valley. The Animal Shows of 
the Glasgow Agricultural Society are especial¬ 
ly interesting on account of the exhibition of 
great numbers of these horses, where com¬ 
petition for the prizes is very close and severe. 
“Nubian,” the stallion whose picture we 
present, was bred in Stirlingshire, Scotland, 
foaled in 1876, and imported in 1880. His 
sire was “ Ivanhoe,” a famous prize-winner, 
and his dams of immediate ancestry, have 
won prizes and gold medals enough to make 
a small fortune. Powell Bros., who are the 
owners of “ Nubian,” are large importers 
and breeders of Clydes. Their stock-farm 
in Crawford Co., Pa., is famous for its 
excellent buildings and appointments. They 
breed Percherons also, and trotting horses, 
but the Clydesdales are their especial pride, 
and were chosen after studying the best 
breeds in their native lands. 
The Varieties of Barley. 
A friend asks if the commonly cultivated 
kinds of barley—the two-rowed and the six- 
rowed, are of the same species. It is a curi¬ 
ous fact that but little is positively known 
about the origin of our cereal grains. They 
have been cultivated from the earliest re¬ 
corded times, in a state not essentially differ¬ 
ent from their present one. None are at 
present known with any certainty in their 
wild state, though in the case of barley, 
specimens which are not essentially different 
from the two-rowed kind, have been found 
apparently native near the Caspian sea. In 
order to understand how two varieties so un¬ 
like in appearance, can be forms of the same 
species, it is necessary to examine a head. 
WTiat we call a head of barley consists of the 
flowers of the grain with the accompanying 
chaff, all crowded together upon the upper 
end of the stem or straw. If we strip off 
grain and chaff, and leave the stem naked, 
it will be seen that this portion is not 
smooth and straight, like the rest of the straw, 
but has a wavy or zig-zag appearance, due to 
notches formed by a hollowing out of the 
stem on two sides, and that these notches are 
placed alternately. The flowers of the bar¬ 
ley are attached to the stem at these notches, 
there being three at each one. A single joint 
is shown in the engraving, with the three 
flowers, a, b, c. We call these flowers, but 
their proper name is spikelets; in barley 
these spikelets are one-flowered and mature 
but one grain, while in the related wheat, the 
spikelet has several flowers, and produces 
three or four grains. The parts, a, b, c, are 
chaffy scales, which envelope the parts of 
the flower and afterwards the grain, each one 
bearing a long, rough, bristle-like point; the 
bristles at the sides and elsewhere, d, e, are 
merely appendages to the flower, and we need 
give them no further attention. It will be 
understood that the whole head of barley is 
made up of repetitions of what is here shown; 
upon the opposite side will be another set of 
three, and so on alternately to the end. In 
two-rowed barley, only the central one, a, of 
the three spikelets produces a grain, the 
others being abortive, and remaining as chaff. 
But the side flowers are sometimes perfect, 
and all three form grains, this (there being 
three similar ones on the opposite side of the 
head) produces six-rowed barley. It may be 
that the middle flower, a, is abortive, while 
those at each side, b and c, both produce 
grains, in which case we have four-rowed 
barley, a well-known, though not very com¬ 
mon variety. It will be seen then, how, by 
the production, of one, two, or three grains 
at each joint of the head, these very unlike 
kinds of barley may be produced. It is not an 
unusual thing in the flowers of grain, as well 
as in many other flowers, for some of them 
to be abortive and fail to perfect fruit; such 
flowers, however, often contain their repro¬ 
ductive parts (stamens and pistils) in a rudi¬ 
mentary or imperfect state; these may be 
developed by some condition of the soil, or 
other cause, and the progeny of such plants 
may continue to reproduce the peculiarity- 
Besides these differences, caused by the pro¬ 
duction of grain of one, two, or three flowers 
at each joint, the character of the chaff, the 
length of the bristles, or beard, the size and 
color of the grain, and many other minor 
differences, produce sub-varieties in each of 
these three chief kinds of cultivated barley. 
Lameness in Horses. 
BY D. 1). SLADE, M. D., PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURAL 
ZOOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY'. 
To the owner of any domestic animal, espe¬ 
cially of horses, nothing is more annoying 
than lameness. To lose his services just 
when most needed severely taxes one’s pa¬ 
tience, and all the more because of the fre¬ 
quent difficulty of detecting the cause. Lame¬ 
ness is not in itself a disease, but simply an 
indication of disease—an exhibition of pain 
or disability in a limb or limbs, the result of 
accident, disease, or malformation. We must 
first ascertain the location, and it is often not 
only difficult to establish with certainty the 
exact seat of lameness, but even to determine 
which limb is affected. For example, a horse 
in trotting away from us, may seem from the 
movements of the body, to be lame in one of 
its hinder extremities, when the difficulty 
actually exists in one of the forward limbs— 
a mistake to be rectified when viewing the 
animal trotting towards the observer. 
To form a correct diagnosis, many circum¬ 
stances are to be considered. Thus the ani¬ 
mal must be examined at rest as well as in 
motion. One of the most frequent mani¬ 
festations of lameness in the stable is “ point¬ 
ing,” whereby on lifting the weight from the 
affected limb, the foot may be extended con¬ 
siderably in advance of the other, or may have 
a semi-flexed position, the toe just touching 
the ground nearly or quite on a level with 
its fellow. The former condition signifies 
trouble in the foot or posterior portion of the 
lower limb; the latter indicates injury to 
shoulder or elbow. The constant shifting of 
the weight of the body from one fore limb 
to the other, or the extension of both fore 
feet, the weight being taken on the heels, 
with an advance of both hind extremities 
nearer the center of gravity, indicates severe 
affections of the front feet. 
The bringing forward of one hind foot, the 
limb being flexed and the toe barely touching 
the ground, denotes some lesion in the neck 
or in the region immediately below it. This 
position is often taken either from fatigue or 
habit, but is not confined to one extremity. 
When both hind limbs are in pain, the fore 
limb's are carried back as far as possible, to 
remove the weight from the former. 
Many forms of lameness can only be de¬ 
tected during motion, and for this a slow 
trot is best. The animal showing lameness 
during walking is very lame; severe lame¬ 
ness in one fore extremity is shown by nod¬ 
ding the head in the toot, caused by taking 
the weight quickly from the infirm limb; 
the head is thrown upon the sound side. 
Lameness in the hind extremity is similarly 
shown but not so marked unless the lame¬ 
ness is very great. If both fore limbs are 
affected, the horse catches them up and puts 
them down quickly, making a short uncer¬ 
tain gait. This abnormal condition being 
sometimes difficult to detect dishonest dealers 
take advantage of it when an animal is lame 
in one fore limb, by laming the other also. 
If both hind limbs are disabled, the horse is 
particularly crippled in movements, especially 
when backed. In this case it is often difficult 
