Vol. LXVII. No. 3024. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 11, 1908. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
TAMING THE WILD HORSES. 
How They Were Handled. 
Some of my friends think I have done pretty well 
in breaking in the wild colts of which I wrote to 
The R. N.-Y. some time ago, so I will tell you how 
I have managed with them. I kept them in the barn 
for two days after getting them home. Then I took 
them out for exercise. At first I simply took a loop 
around the colt’s nose so as to have some control of 
her, but not so as to hurt or frighten her. I had a 
long rope, and allowed the colt to trot around me in 
a large circle, being careful not to let her get too much 
excited or going too fast, as I might lose control of 
her. Then I placed a bridle with a leather bit on her, 
and got her somewhat used to wearing it in the barn 
before I took her out with it, after which I placed on 
her a surcingle with crupper, and loops for the lines 
well down on the sides, and let her go around me in 
the field with this. Of 
course I kept talking to 
her all the time, and 
gradually taught her to 
stop at the word “whoa.” 
Then I taught her to 
come to me when I told 
her to. After I had thor¬ 
oughly taught her to stop 
or to come up to me at 
the word, I placed the 
rope through the side 
loops and began driving 
her around. She was 
somewhat frightened at 
first, and would probably 
have thrown me down 
and ran away but for her 
having learned to stop 
instantly at the word 
“whoa:” 
The next step was to 
teach her to back. This 
came pretty hard, but I 
got the better of her. It 
is not at all difficult to 
find a steep 'hill in these 
parts, and I drove my 
colt part way up the 
steepest knoll I could 
find. Then I said “back” 
and pulled on the lines. 
She didn’t want to at all, 
but gravitation was too 
much in my favor, and 
after a few lunges and 
some sulking she took a 
step backward. I had to go back to my steep knoll 
several times before she would back at the word and a 
slight pull of the reins, but she soon learned to back 
by simply asking her to. Then we were ready for the 
wagon. I chose an ordinary three-spring platform 
wagon to drive her on at first, because the tongue was 
pretty high from the ground, and the whiffletrees were 
long and did not swing about as they would on a heavy 
farm wagon. I attached a chain to each whiffletree so 
that one horse could not go too far ahead of the other, 
and after seeing that everything was in perfect condi¬ 
tion we hitched her on by the side of Dolly. Now 
Dolly is kind and true as steel, but she is not lazy. 
If a horse gets his nose ahead of hers it is because 
he is a better horse than she is. She won’t let him 
if she can help it, and her good disposition makes her 
a useful teacher for the colt. 
We put a cord through the bit of the colt and kept 
hold of it while we were hitching up. This cord was 
about 40 feet long, and we needed it. She stood 
quietly enough until she was hitched and I got in the 
wagon. But when I told her to go she seemed to 
think that the neck yoke was* a pole which she must 
jump over. She tried jumping the yoke a.few times, 
but as it came up just as fast and as high as she did 
she got mad and tried to bite it in two. The boy 
pulled bravely on his cord, and pretty soon she gave 
the yoke up and started on a dead run. The boy 
jumped in the back of the wagon and we let her go. 
I did not try to pull her down too quickly, but rather 
kept them out of the ditch and let her have her run 
out. She had quite a temper, and it seemed best to 
let her work it off in a harmless run. She soon found 
that drawing a wagon up New York State hills was 
quite different from a spin across a South Dakota 
prairie. So she settled down and let Dolly draw her 
half. We drove over to the village and showed her 
some of the sights of the town. When she saw the 
cannon on the green with its three-inch bore and its 
pile of six-inch shells she became indignant again, and 
bolted across the park, utterly regardless of the sign 
THOSE WILD HORSES FINALLY IN HARNESS. Fig. 8. 
to keep off the grass. But we managed to dodge the 
trees and got her safely headed for home. By the 
time we got back to the little schoolhouse school was 
out, and the colt had settled down so quietly that when 
we invited the “schoolma’am” to ride with us she inno¬ 
cently complied, and we finished the lesson by taking 
the teacher to her boarding place. We had to be very 
careful for some time not to startle the colts in hitch¬ 
ing or unhitching. They are zvild —awfully wild. They 
are not vicious, and do not need to be subdued. They 
are wild and need to be tamed. A deer is one of the 
most timid of animals, yet one will fight desperately 
if brought to bay. Now in training these wild horses 
do not bring them to bay, for if you do they will fight, 
and they can fight badly, too. Don’t compare them to 
the stall-fed mollycoddles that we raise at home. You 
might just as well compare the average farm boy to 
a New York street urchin. But these horses can be 
tamed, and if tamed with the energy that they have 
gathered up in roaming the plains left in them they 
will make horses that will give good service on farm 
and road for many years. j. grant morse. 
HOME TESTING FOR TUBERCULOSIS. 
The Qualifications Required. 
In regard to the question, “Flow many of our peo¬ 
ple have tested their own cows with tuberculin?” 
would say that I have tested my stock for two years, 
and it seems to me that any farmer who is wideawake 
enough to know about the danger from tuberculosis 
and the need of testing his herd would be capable 
of doing the testing, but if a veterinary surgeon is 
within reach it is by all means best to employ him, 
for several reasons. In the first place, Director James 
Law, of the State Veterinary College, tells us that 
there are so many circumstances under which the 
temperature would rise that would have no connec¬ 
tion with tuberculosis that we might condemn our 
cows unnecessarily. Then, again, I have known an 
animal’s temperature to fall nearly six degrees be¬ 
tween morning and noon, simply as a result of filling 
full with cold water. In 
a recent conversation 
with a veterinary sur¬ 
geon who is engaged in 
this line of work all 
over the State I was 
told that he found the 
farmers as a class very 
stubborn in regard to the 
question of tuberculosis; 
that they all said they 
did not have it in their 
herds, never had had it, 
and did not want to 
know it if they did have. 
Cannot they see the 
strings being drawn 
closer very rapidly on 
impure and diseased 
milk ? Did they read 
Secretary Wilson’s warn¬ 
ing to transportation 
companies against carry¬ 
ing disease-infected stock 
as regards interstate 
traffic? Do they know 
that the majority of the 
States will not allow an 
animal shipped in with¬ 
out first being tested ? 
Do they not see that 
soon a determined and 
united effort (by the 
authorities in charge) 
will be made to stamp 
out this dread disease? 
I have not kept strictly 
digressed a little to show 
and that sooner or later 
to my text, but I 
the necessity of testing, 
all herds will be tested, whether farmers fight or not. 
H. V. R. asks if it is safe and practical for a dairy¬ 
man of ordinary intelligence to test his cows. It 
seems to me both safe and practical. It is as neces¬ 
sary to get the normal temperature before injecting 
the tuberculin as it is to be exact after. I understand 
the Veterinary College at Ithaca furnishes tuberculin 
at 12cents per dose; furnishes blanks free and asks 
that the blanks be returned after being filled out as 
directed, when they will report on the tests. There 
are several firms who advertise the outfits with full 
instructions. If you can go when any testing is being 
done, watch closely, ask questions, soak up all the 
knowledge you can; then, if you feel competent, go 
back home and test two or three cows and see how you 
make it go. If they react don’t burn up your records, 
but go at it and get rid of every one that is diseased 
(not to your neighbor or friend). According to the 
State law you say (page 886) that this crusade against 
tuberculous cattle would result in colder stables. Why 
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