356 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
when they get sullen, and lie down, is just to 
bring a dog and drop him down on them. It 
will make them jump up when nothing 
else in the world will.” We seized the hint 
at once for the benefit of our friends who 
own such pests as obstinate oxen, and give 
it to them now. We believe there is no an¬ 
tipathy so universal and inveterate as that of 
cattle against dogs, and it strikes us that 
when all other means fail, that will answer. — 
Southern Planter. 
A PLEA FOR HORSES. 
We have a word to offer to our farming 
friends who employ horses as their chief 
draught animals. The horse of all animals 
is one of the most sensitives to sudden 
changes of temperature, and to impure air or 
want of cleanliness. We speak from obser¬ 
vation, when we say that not half the stables 
in the country are, at this season, kept in a 
fit condition to be occupied by horses, even 
while put in about an hour for the noon feed¬ 
ing- 
The droppings of horses, both liquid and 
solid, are among the most quickly ferment¬ 
ing, easily decomposed manures. In warm 
weather the work of decay commences im¬ 
mediately, and in a very few days one-half 
or more of the weight goes off in a gaseous 
form. This keeps the air constantly loaded 
with noxious, unhealthy matters, which are 
just as deleterious to the health and vigor of 
horses as to those of man. During the busy 
season of harvest and seeding, cleaning sta¬ 
bles is scarcely ever attended to regularly. 
The animals generally occupy them a short 
time in the morning, at noon, and perhaps in 
the evening for graining, but the stables lie 
untouched for days or weeks—we have seen 
them lie thus for months. The horse is tied 
up for an hour’s feeding and rest in the heat 
of the day, but instead of standing in a cool, 
sweet, well ventilated stable, ten chances to 
one, he stands sweating and panting, with 
scarcely a breath of air which is not literally 
loaded with the fumes of his own decaying 
excrements, and he goes forth tired and de¬ 
bilitated instead of refreshed, to undergo the 
severe-toils of drawing the plow during the 
sultry hours of the afternoon. 
The remedy for this is very simple. If 
the stalls do not have a free circulation of 
air, let a board or two be knocked off in front 
or on the sides at the head of the stalls ; they 
can be easly replaced when cold weather 
comes on. Let some such plan be adopted, 
and in every case let the stables be made as 
cool and airy as possible. 
Let all excrements, however small in quan¬ 
tity, be removed at least once a day, and by 
all means keep the floor well sprinkled with 
some deodorizing material. A weak solu¬ 
tion of sulphuric or muriatic acid is excel¬ 
lent for this purpose ; but these are often 
inconvenient and troublesome, even if readily 
obtained. Plaster of Paris (Gypsum or sul¬ 
phate of lime) is very good; common salt is 
also good. Each of these substances increas¬ 
es the value, of the manure more than its 
cost. Dry straw and muck are also very 
valuable for the same reason. 
We have frequently known lime and ashes 
recommended for this, but these rapidly de¬ 
compose the manure, and greatly diminish 
its value for applying to crops, and they 
should never be used unless with muck, or 
with long manure, which is to be immediately 
covered in the soil. These may seem tri¬ 
fling considerations, but they are really of 
great importance. 
As before stated, horses take cold very 
easily. On this occount they should never 
be turned from a warm stall, where they 
have perspired for an hour, directly into a 
wet, damp pasture. A horse should never 
be compelled to lie down over night in a 
wet, unsheltered pasture. Let them always 
have a dry plot, or, what is better, a shed or 
stable to retire to when they have completed 
their evening grazing, especially if there be 
heavy dows, fogs or rain. A horse will nev¬ 
er lie in an open field when a sheltered spot 
is accessible. Every one must have ob¬ 
served that they always seek the driest spot 
to be found, and generally lie near a fence, 
shed or tree.— Orange Judd, in N. Y. Times. 
POINTS OF A GOOD HORSE. 
Zadok Pratt, in a late lecture on the horse, 
gives his opinion of what constitute good 
points: 
He should be about fifteen and ahalfhands 
high; the head light and clean made ; wide 
between the nostrils, and the nostrils them¬ 
selves large, transparent and open ; broad in 
the forehead; eyes prominent, clear and 
sparkling; ears small, neatly set on; neck 
rather short, and well set up; large arm or 
shoulder, well thrown back, and high ; with¬ 
ers arched and high ; legs fine, flat, thin, and 
small-boned; body round and rather light, 
though sufficiently large to afford substance 
when it is needed ; full chest, affording play 
for the lungs; back short, with the hind 
quarters set on rather obliquely. Any one 
possessing a horse of this make and appear¬ 
ance, and weighing eleven or twelve hun¬ 
dred pounds, may rest assured he has a horse 
all work, and a |bargain^well worth getting 
hold of. 
Mr. Pratt is now seventy years of age, and 
has always been an admirer of fine horses, 
and is a competent judge. There are in Mr. 
P.’s lecture many valuable hints. We give 
two or three: 
Care of Horses .—No horse can endure 
labor all the time. A few months in pas¬ 
ture, after being high fed and worked for 
several years, will renew his energies, as 
stated periods of rest and recreation will 
preserve the vital energies of man unim¬ 
paired through a long life; and by a wise 
law of Providence, which is as beneficial to 
the beast as to the man, a horse will do more 
labor in the six days than if he were worked 
the whole seven. 
In reference to the peculiar excellence of 
the horses of New-York, I might say, that' I 
have driven a pair two hundred and forty 
miles in three days, or eighty miles per day, 
without injury. Among the many hundreds, 
and perhaps thousands, of drivers and team¬ 
sters in my employ, I had a slow molded 
man by the name of Dana Brown, who drove 
for me some ten years, and always drew the 
largest loads in the same time, and with less 
fatigue to his horses, than any other driver I 
ever knew. His horses would look better 
on the same feed than those of any other, 
and they always appeared in good condition, 
while those in charge of others gave unmis- 
takeable evidence of improper usage. Forty, 
fifty, and "even sixty hundred weight, has he 
drawn over the Catskill mountains with one 
pair of horses, and I am only doing him an 
act of justice to say, that he never wore out 
a lash, and hardly a snapper in the whole 
time. While other teamsters had sick 
horses, his were always in good condition. 
The whole number of teams I had in one 
year, averaged in every three working days 
2,600 pounds to Prattsville, and 3,000 pounds 
to Catskill, a distance of thirty six miles, 
making about two and a half millions of 
pounds in all. I mention these facts as il¬ 
lustrating the great benefit of a good man¬ 
agement of horses and of roads. 
In feeding a horse, it should be remem¬ 
bered that corn has a tendency to make him 
slow, as may be witnessed in the slmv mov¬ 
ing corn-fed horse of Ohio. Oats are more 
suitable to develop all his qualities, and from 
ten to sixteen quarts per day should be given 
Age of Horses .—With regard to the natur¬ 
al longevity of a horse, nothing can be said 
with certainty. They have been known to 
live thirty or forty, and in some instances 
even sixty years, but ill usage frequently 
destroys them before they are nine or ten. 
I think that under ordinary circumstances 
fourteen years would be a fair average. 
Breaking .—Too much importance can not 
be placed upon the judicious breaking and 
management of this noble animal. It should 
be like that of a child ; by no other means 
can a horse be reduced to a cheerful and 
ready obedience. A sullen and dogged sub¬ 
mission will result, it is true, from cruel and 
brutal treatment, but a prompt and eager re¬ 
sponse to the wish of a rider can be obtained 
by patient kindness. I think there are few 
horses baulky by nature, and that then most 
are made so by drivers, who are possessed 
of less brains than the horse himself. 
THE DEAD HORSES OF PARIS. 
Four hundred horses die or are killed in 
Paris in one week. There is a common 
pound, surrounded by a stone wall, covering 
some ten acres. According to some munici¬ 
pal regulations (there is an ‘ ordinance’ for 
everything in France) all dead carcasses, ex¬ 
cept human bones, must be brought to this 
general receptacle. The carcass of a horse 
is valuable for the bone, the hide, and the 
hair, to say nothing of the flesh, much prized 
when fresh, in certain sausage manufactories. 
But should you wait until the horse has ac¬ 
tually shuffled off his hairy coat, you might 
miss a bargain—another of the trade pre¬ 
cedes and purchases. Hence it is important 
to buy the horse, before he is dead. It is a 
rugular business in Paris. You can tell 
these agents for the purchase of dead horses 
at a glance ; the dress is that of an English 
groom, save the vignette on the visor of the 
cap, representing a dead horse’s head and 
cross-bones ; a memorandum book, a pencil, 
a stamp, and a piece of caustic complete his 
accoutrements. With scrutinizing eye he 
travels the thoroughfares of Paris ; should a 
horse go lame, break a leg or neck, should 
he show symptoms of distress—in a word, 
anywhere or in any way evince signs of the 
many ills to which horseflesh is heir, imme¬ 
diately is an offer made for the animal, deliv¬ 
erable when really dead. The bargain con¬ 
cluded, the ‘ signalement’ of the horse and 
owner is carefully recorded, and a private 
mark stamped on the inside of the foreleg 
with the caustic ; the horse goes, perhaps 
rejoicing, on his way for weeks, perhaps 
months, only to be met with and identified 
after death, at the graveyard for horses. 
Now, except in cases of fresh specimens, as 
mentioned above, the first operation on a 
dead horse is to take off the skin ; then the 
flesh, to get at the bones. The skinning por¬ 
tion is easy, and performed with a dexterity 
and rapidity truly astonishing. I have seen 
in the inclosure spoken of, at one time, over 
one hundred horses skinned, or being put 
through that process. The next point is to 
divest the bones of adhesive and often putrid 
flesh—bones are valued in proportion as 
they are dear, neat, and free from other mat¬ 
ter. To take off the flesh by hand is a te¬ 
dious and difficult operation. An ingenious 
Frenchman solved the difficulty. He no¬ 
ticed that rats were very fond of horse-flesh ; 
he advised the authorities to colonize the 
horse pound with these animals ; the cata¬ 
combs of Paris furnished them by thousands. 
It was done, and now-a-days a dead horse’s 
carcass put in over night, is literally nothing 
but a neat and beautiful skeleton in the 
morning. The pecuniary saving to the bone 
dealers from the voracity and gnawing pro- 
