VOL. XLVIII. 
NO. 2o69. NEW YORK, 
SEPTEMBER 2^-1889. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
— 
[Entered According to Act of Congress. In the Year issy by the 
Rural New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.] 
fyoxsman. 
FRENCH COACH STALLION 
FR ANCON I. 
The picture of this fine horse, shown at 
figure 235, is said by a good judge of such 
work, to l>e “ the finest specimen of photo¬ 
printing ” lie has ever seen. We are sure 
our readers will agree with him that the 
picture is very life-like and clear—more 
natural and true to life than any human 
eye or hand could draw it. There is but 
one criticism that can possibly be made con¬ 
cerning this picture. The horse stands in 
such a position that his head, neck and 
shoulders seem heavier than they really are. 
Any horseman, however, can readily see 
that this is due to the position of the horse. 
Franconi, 189, is owned by Messrs Smiths, 
Powell and Lamb. He is an imported horse 
foaled April 14, 1883. He is considered one 
of the finest specimens of the breed now in 
this country. He stands lCdf hands high 
and weighs 1,400 pounds. He has the typi¬ 
cal French Coach horse characteristics: 
“ Bio* ky, compact, with very fine head, 
neck, eyes, ears, with superior shoulders, 
short., well coupled back, excellent quarters, 
with well arched ribs, round full barrel, 
full chest, superior lung power, smooth, 
clean, hard limbs, the best of feet,with high, 
straight, firm knee action and splendid road 
gait,” 
There is no class of horses that sell so well 
in the New York City markets to-dav as 
shapely and well-colored coach and carriage 
horses. There is always a demand for such 
animals, and the chances are that this de¬ 
mand will increase rather than diminish. 
It occurs to the R, N.-Y. that t his is a prof¬ 
itable field for Eastern farmers to enter. 
The hilly Eastern farms from which the 
beef cattle have 
been driven by the 
trade in dressed- 
l>eef, cannot profita¬ 
bly produce heavy 
draft horses, and 
the trotter requires 
too much time for 
training. Why not 
coacliers and car¬ 
riage horses? The 
R. N.-Y. believes 
that it will be hard 
to find more profit¬ 
able live stock for 
Eastern farms than 
grades out of good 
farm mares from 
such an animal as 
we have pictured. 
There are many rea¬ 
sons why French 
Coach horsesshould 
be selected for the 
production of sala¬ 
ble grades. They are 
unquestionably 
very strongly bred 
and impart their 
prominent charac¬ 
teristics to tlieir 
progeny. They are 
of line size, usually 
well proportioned, 
with strong, cordy 
limbs, fine heads 
and necks, intelli¬ 
gent faces, good 
backs and loins and 
good, roomy chests, 
and the linest kind 
of actiou such as is 
desirable in a fine, showy coach horse 
They are also speedy enough to be desira¬ 
ble. They are hardy and seem to adapt 
themselves to any part of our country 
where they have been introduced, and while 
the best crosses are made on large coaching 
mares, when crossed on the common mares 
of the country, the get are of fine size and 
good action and make horses that readily 
sell at good paying prices both for the city 
carriage or coiicli and for the general pur¬ 
poses of the farmer. The grades are in de¬ 
mand, especially by parties supplying city 
trade. They are kind and gentle, require 
no especial training and they can be broken 
to drive quite as easily as Clydes. We be- 
Jieve the grade Coach colt will sell for more 
money and more readily than the grades of 
either Clydes or Pereherons among the gen¬ 
eral public, though this might not be the 
ease in a purely agricultural community. 
Breeders write us that they do not recall a 
single worthless colt of this breed, and they 
have been crossed on all kinds, styles and 
qualities of mares. 
THE SHETLAND PONY. 
A wav far beyond the north of Scotland, 
in the bleak, wind-swept Shetland Isles, is 
the home of the Shetland pony or Shcltie. 
It is the product of its environment, which 
necessarily makes it small and hardy. Of 
the 100. Shetland Islands, comprising about 
450 square miles and scantily supporting a 
population of about 30,000, not more than 
one-fourth are inhabited. Their bold and 
precipitous coasts vary in bight from 500 to 
1,300 feet. The rugged, rocky interior is 
not much higher, and is generally covered 
with scanty herbage or, more commonly, 
with a thick coating of moss, the only tol¬ 
erably fertile soil being in a few valleys 
opening on the bays in the larger islands. 
A northern trend of the Gulf Stream temp¬ 
ers somewhat the extreme cold of the 
islands due to their far northern latitude, 
but for a large part of the year the 
weather is wet and wildly tempest¬ 
uous and fogs are heavy and frequent. 
Like the usual products of an inclement cli¬ 
mate and sparse means of subsistence, all 
the live stock of the group are very diminu¬ 
tive, and of them the Shelties are much the 
most important. Great numbers of these 
are bred on the heaths and niggardly pas¬ 
tures of the interior, their rough, shaggy 
coats and vigorous constitutions enabling 
them to withstand all the severities of the 
long, bleak, dark, cheerless winters on the 
scantiest fare. When the depth of snow on 
the uplands prevents them from picking up 
a meager subsistence from the withered 
pastures, they make their way down to the 
sea-shore and manage to make as good a 
livelihood on the kelp and sea-weed tossed 
upon the tempest-beaten beach. So large 
has been the demand for these diminu¬ 
tive ponies of late that much more 
attention than was formerly given to the 
matter, has been recently bestowed on 
breeding and rearing them: but the con¬ 
ditions of the climate and vegetation of 
their birth-place still keep them stunted 
and hardy. When captured and tamed, 
they require little feed or care. They 
are the smallest variety of the horse, their 
bight varying from 34 to 44 inches, few 
reaching the latter size. They are round, 
close-ribbed with small, well-shaped heads; 
ears small; eyes large, bright and intelli¬ 
gent; neck short and thick, set off by a 
long, coarse mane; shoulders long and mus¬ 
cular; loins broad and well formed; quart¬ 
ers moderately large; back gently curving; 
legs and feet well formed and of a splendid 
texture; tail long and abundant; color 
chiefly bay, brown or a rusty black, chest¬ 
nut. and grays being extremely rare. 
The endurance of Shelties is great and 
their strength is vastly disproportioned to 
their size. Indeed they can easily carry a 
man upwards of 150 pounds in weight if he 
can only arrange his legs so as to keep them 
off the ground. They can be easily trained 
and are affectionate and very good-tem¬ 
pered. Their amiability and size well 
adapt them for the use of children, with 
whom they are prime favorites. For years 
large numbers have been imported into 
England for the use of her aristocratic little 
ones, and of late years considerable impor¬ 
tations have been made into this country, 
where they have brought remunerative 
prices. The exported animal, however, 
nicely clipped, neatly trimmed and well fed, 
presents a vastly more handsome though 
less picturesque appearance than did, erst¬ 
while, the same spare-boned animal with 
coarse, shaggy coat, long, tossing mane, and 
sweeping, bushy tail in its inclement north¬ 
ern home. Our illustration, however, re¬ 
engraved from the London Live Stock 
Journal, represents a Sheltie in his natural 
condition, except that he has somewhat 
more flesh than his untamed brethren us¬ 
ually carry. See page 638. 
IjijiRcm'. 
FARM SANITATION. 
Trie earth-closet a great sanitary device ; 
how to manage one ; “ terrible examples ” 
of the evils of well-water pollution from 
privy and stable-yard ; a modern Cassan¬ 
dra's predictions also disbelieved ; wis¬ 
dom swerves not for ridicule ; a salutary 
warming. 
I was frightened, yes, really, frightened 
to learn from the Rural's “ Brevities ” of 
February 9th, that the earth-closet had but 
just got its first practical test at the Rural 
homestead. The 
d i fti c u 11 y w i t. h 
earth-closets is, 
that the labor re¬ 
quired to make 
them do their work 
nicely is either for¬ 
gotten or grudged 
on the average farm 
—often enough at a 
terrible cost. To 
popularize much 
needed reform by 
the general intro¬ 
duction of the earth 
closet, the latter 
must be made at 
least possible ex¬ 
pense and labor. 
We have not used 
a vault in 35 years, 
d e p e u ding alto¬ 
gether ou earth 
during that part of 
the year in which 
earth can be had 
unfrozen. A door 
at the back of the 
privy admits a box 
on runners or 
wheels where the 
building itself 
must contain the 
earth used. We 
have one in use that 
is simplicity itself. 
It stands at a con¬ 
siderable distance 
from the house, be¬ 
hind a tree that, is 
overrun with vines 
in summer and 
