106© 
THE RURA.I> NEW-YORKER 
October 12, 
Live Stock and Dairy 
THE STORY OF THE HORSE. 
• Part V. 
The Prehistoric Horse. 
Professor Marsh traces the horse in 
its evolution, or development, from a 
little animal of the Eocene period no 
bigger than a fox. From this little 
animal of dim and distant ages the 
soliped has passed, according to the pro¬ 
fessor, through many different forms, 
constantly increasing in size and chang¬ 
ing in limbs, feet, teeth and many other 
organs. It may be said in passing that 
the term “soliped” includes all animals 
whose hoofs are not cloven, as, for in¬ 
stance, the ass and zebra. This small 
progenitor of the modern horse evi¬ 
dently lived on low, marshy lands, for 
he had five distinct spreading toes with 
which to prevent himself from sinking 
in the mire. A complete series of fos¬ 
sils has been found in America, show¬ 
ing the development of our present one¬ 
toed horse, through many links in the 
chain of evolution, from the little five- 
toed animal who roamed the swamps 
and morasses in the days when earth 
was young. 
The two facts that 17 species of fossil 
horse have been found in North Amer¬ 
ica, and that only in America is the 
series from a five-toed to a one-toed 
animal complete, seem to point to this 
continent as the cradle of the horse 
family. It is impossible for naturalists 
to account for the entire absence of 
horses in America at the time of its 
discovery. That they were very numer¬ 
ous at one time is certain from the 
number of fossils which are found, but 
whether they were driven out by gla¬ 
ciers, disease or savage animals will 
never be known. Many fossil remains 
of the horse are found in the post¬ 
pliocene, or more modern strata of rock, 
in both the Old and New World, con¬ 
temporaneous with the mastodon and 
other gigantic animals. Horses of this 
period were about equal in size to our 
present undomesticated breeds. 
From the foregoing evidence it is ap¬ 
parent that the horse inhabited both the 
Old and New World long before man. 
Many of these prehistoric races became 
extinct, while others survived. Darwin 
believed that the immediate, or nearest, 
ancestor of all members of the horse 
family was a dun-colored animal with 
black stripes on his back, shoulders and 
hips and black bars on his legs. He 
held this theory from the fact that in 
all breeds of horses and asses, and 
other species of the horse family, there 
is every now and then an individual 
born with these black bars and stripes. 
This he considered a reversion, or tak¬ 
ing back, to the original dun-colored, 
more or less striped primitive stock. 
Wild horses are found in America on 
the pampas of Brazil and Buenos Ayres 
and on our western prairies. These are 
all descendants of stock brought over 
from Europe by Spaniards and Por¬ 
tuguese. Several varieties of wild 
horses inhabit the steppes of eastern 
Europe and of Asia. Some of them 
may have originated from escaped do¬ 
mesticated animals, but it is very prob¬ 
able that many of these vast herds be¬ 
long to the original wild stock. At any 
rate, the wild horses of the steppes 
show what the original primitive horse 
was like. They are much smaller than 
most domesticated breeds (from 10 to 
13 hands), more muscular, with strong¬ 
er limbs, larger head, larger and less 
erect ears, more bushy mane and tail, 
longer coat, and smaller and more prim¬ 
itive hoofs. They are intelligent and 
shy, swift, sure-footed and enduring. 
They live in troops and are led by an 
old stallion whom they follow as faith¬ 
fully as soldiers do a captain. Their 
sight and hearing are very acute, as 
well as their sense of smell; hence they 
are hard to approach. 
All of our domestic breeds of horses 
have descended from five varieties of 
the original stock inhabiting Europe and 
Asia, and possibly northern Africa. 
These five races are the Piebald, Bay, 
Dun, White and Black. 
The plateau of Tibet is the home of 
the Piebald. Even to this day they are 
found there in large numbers. They 
are about 11 hands tall, finely made and 
strong. Probably they were first domes¬ 
ticated near Tibet and then brought 
west into Persia, Arabia and Palestine. 
It is evident from the following that 
the Prophet Zachariah was more or less 
familiar with the Piebald horse, as well 
as the bay. In chapter one, verse eight, 
he says: “I saw by night, and behold a 
man riding upon a red horse, and he 
stood among the myrtle trees that were 
in the bottom; and behind him were 
three red horses speckled and white.” 
The Piebald horse was taken to Greece 
and Rome; in fact, the poet Virgil re¬ 
fers to him in Canto IX of the Aeneid. 
“The fiery Turnus fled before the rest, 
A pye-ball’d steed of Thracian strain 
he press’d.” 
From Rome this horse was taken to 
Spain, and from thence to America, 
where his peculiar markings are often 
seen in the mustang and Indian pony. 
The Bay horse inhabited, and still in¬ 
habits, the plains east of the Caspian 
Sea. He is small and well-made, like 
the Piebald, and varies somewhat in 
color, which shows that he is probably 
not unmixed with other races. It was 
in all probability the Bay horse which 
the Hyksos used when they captured 
Memphis in Egypt, in the year 2080 
B. C. Some of them were left in Egypt 
and formed part of the original stock 
of that country. Others were taken to 
Arabia but were there mixed to some 
extent with the White and Piebald 
races. It is likely that they were bred 
large, for war horses, even in very early 
times. The blood of this Bay race of 
horses, through the Arabian and other 
eastern breeds, has been scattered all' 
over the civilized world. 
The Dun horse is found in large num¬ 
bers throughout northern Europe and" 
northeast of the Caspian Sea. Shetland 
and Norwegian ponies are the most fa¬ 
miliar domesticated breeds of this type. 
The dun, or brown color, as may be 
inferred from the name, is character¬ 
istic, and a black stripe running from 
the mane to the roots of the tail is usu¬ 
ally found. According to Darwin, these 
markings would seem to show that this 
race traces more directly from the old 
progenitor of the horse family than do 
the other types. The Dun horse is 
small and very hardy and is said to be 
the most intelligent and docile of all 
the wild breeds. He is shown in Greek 
sculpture to be about 14 hands high. 
His blood, like that of the Bay, has en¬ 
tered into the makeup of many breeds 
of horses throughout the civilized, world. 
The White horse was the most hon¬ 
ored and the most beautiful of antiquity. 
His original home was in Europe, north 
of the Black Sea, and in parts of Asia 
near the rivers Jaxartes and Oxus. With 
the exception of the Black horse of 
Europe, he was the largest of all wild 
races, standing about 14 hands. He is 
massive in all parts, head large, tail 
long, and color grizzly white. After he 
came under the control of man, those 
specimens purest in color were most de¬ 
sired, so it was not long before pure 
white steeds were common. This horse 
first appears in history about 1700 B. C. 
He was the court horse of Cyrus, Xer¬ 
xes, Darius and other' early eastern 
inonarchs. In Europe and northern 
Asia he was worshipped as .a representa¬ 
tive of the sun. He was taken to Rome, 
and from thence spread over western 
Europe. 
Of the five original races, by far the 
largest was the great Black horse of 
Europe. He lived in the rich valleys of 
the Weser, Rhine, Meuse, Scheldt, 
Seine, upper Danube and in fact all the 
fertile valleys of Germany and France. 
He was hugely proportioned as shown 
by numerous fossil remains. His head 
was large, neck short and thick; he had 
long and heavy mane and tail, heavy 
hips and shoulders, large legs with 
knotty joints, large, flat feet and long 
hair from knee and hock down. He 
was one of the first of the wild races 
to be domesticated, in spite of the su¬ 
perstition of the ancients that he was a 
representative of the devil and that 
sparks of fire streamed from his tail 
as he ran. This early domestication 
was due, no doubt, to the ease with 
which he could be captured and tamed. 
The blood of this great Black horse 
spread into Spain, Italy, eastern Europe 
and western Asia. In fact, all of our 
present heavy breeds have more or less 
of it in their make-up. c. s. M. 
Cost of Keeping Houses. —At the Ohio 
Agricultural College investigations were 
made covering the cost of keeping horses. 
Over 1,000 horses were included. The 
average cost of keeping horses in Columbus 
is 40.1 cents a day, and contrary to popu¬ 
lar belief, heavy express horses are fed for 
nearly 2% cents less than light driving 
horses. The lowest cost was $89.02 per 
year in the casj of an underfed animal, and 
the highest cost was $229.02, a stallion 
being fitted for show. One noticeable fact 
was the absence of variety .in the ration, 
the principal roughage being Timothy lpiy 
the year round, and it was common to find 
this feed given in excess. Corn and oats 
constituted the principal grains fed. In 
one instance a saving of $11.15 per animal, 
or a yearly saving of $669 was brought 
about by the use of four pounds of oat 
straw in place of a similar amount of hay. 
Keep Hogs 
A DIPPING TANK OR A HOG WALLOW 
WITH 
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WILL DO THE WORK 
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR LOUSY MANGY 
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ALL OF THESE USES FULLY DESCRIBED 
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DETROIT, 
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^otHEAVE 
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NEGLECT 
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only 
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FACTS ABOUT 
Farm Lands Average Less Than $17 Per Acre. 
Undeveloped tracts sell from $6 up. Beef, pork, dairying, 
poultry, sheep and horses make big profits. Large returns 
from alfalfa, corn, truck, cotton, apples, fruits and nuts. 
Growers command good local and Northern Markets. 
THE 
or 
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SOUTHEAST 
The Southern Railway Ge°o b rg1a & s?. h & FiSal 
territory offers the finest conditions for farms and homes. 
Plenty of rain, mild winters, enjoyable summers. Promising 
industrial openings everywhere. The Southern Railway has 
nothing to sell; we want YOU in the Southeast. The 
“Southern Field," state booklets and all facts free. 
V. RICHARDS, Land & Industrial Agent, Room 87 Washington, D. C. 
