FOREST AND STREAM 
405 
York, illustrated lecture on “Propagation of 
Game.” 
One result of the coming of Dr. Tarleton H. 
Bean, the fish culturist, of Albany, N. Y., to 
attend the fish and game meeting has been a 
move to secure his services in the selection of a 
site for a new fish hatchery. 
It is the aim of the department to secure ac¬ 
tion at the next session of the legislature, au¬ 
thorizing the erection of a hatchery, adequate 
for all the needs of 'the state, at some point 
where the water supply can be relied on. If 
the plan goes through, it will probably mean the 
abandonment of the present fish hatchery at La¬ 
conia, by reason of the inadequacy of the water 
supply and the damage to fish life there both 
by flood and drought. Last spring a portion of 
the dam was carried away by high water, lib¬ 
erating the parent fish in the pool above, and 
causing the death of more than a million trout 
fry in the tanks in the hatchery. 
With Commissioner Frank J. Beal, Dr. Bean 
made an inspection of the Soucook river and de¬ 
clared it an ideal stream on which to locate a 
hatchery. He also made tests of the water 
and found it all right. The only difficulty, ac¬ 
cording to Commissioner Beal, is the finding of 
a proper site for the location of a dam. 
A. H. ROBINSON. 
DOGS OF WAR IN BELGIUM. 
Brussels is now much in the eye of the public, 
and all who have visited that scrupulously clean 
city must have been greatly struck with its dogs 
For the dog is used as a worker in Belgium, and 
he is part and parcel of,the day’s toil, whether it 
be in the piping times of peace or amid the 
ghastly surroundings of war. There are the 
draught dogs of the milk and vegetable sellers 
and the dogs used by the military for the purpose 
of pulling light machine guns and appliances as¬ 
sociated with the army medical corps. 
The draught dog of Belgium is a fine and husky 
fellow. He is an off shot of the Danish dog, his 
strength is considerable and his pace is good. He 
is firm on his feet and his pads are so hard, 
tough and tried that he is free from foot weari¬ 
ness, and when there is no work doing he lies 
down in his harness between the shafts of the 
two-wheel cart and dozes off with his big and 
sensible head between his forefeet. Awake he 
either barks his greetings to a passing friend or 
greets an old enemy with a savage salute. The 
dogs, however, are usually quiet, and it would 
seem that they enjoy thoroughly the work they 
have to do. 
Thus it is that much as the dog lover in some 
other countries hates to make his dog a beast of 
burden, he cannot help admiring the working 
dogs of Brussels and other Continental cities, 
where, to all appearances, they so thoroughly 
like their work. As the well regulated trains 
speed their way along the tracks, the teams of 
dogs hauling their loads of garden produce or 
milk on the road alongside of the railway are 
not the least interesting sights of the grand 
tour. 
All the big trek dogs of the Belgians are un¬ 
der capital command, and especially is this the 
case among the soldiers’ dogs. There is discipline 
in the kennel as there is within the barracks, 
and the dogs, big, apparently savage and surly 
animals, are, when in charge of the men, orderly 
as a pack of well mannered foxhounds. 
If the weather be bad and the roads slippery 
the foot of the dog has all the advantage over 
that of the hoofed animal. It is true that the 
foot often suffers, but the owners are careful of 
their dogs, and a bath of salt water and a dress¬ 
ing of resin ointment will go a long way to heal 
up a dean sore in four and twenty hours. 
The dog market in Brussels on Sunday morn¬ 
ings is an attractive place, held, as it Is, in the 
Hotel de Ville Square. It is here that a dog and 
cart turnout can be purchased, and there is both 
new and old harness from which to choose. The 
would-be buyer can give a dog a trial between 
the shafts of the cart, and put the weight be¬ 
hind the dog that the seller claims the animal 
can draw. The business man goes to the market 
or auction to buy a dog and car-t, just as the 
New Yorker visits the horse salesman or the 
automobile truck seller. The dog is one of the 
cogs of the wheel of industry, and with the 
venders of dairy and truck farm produce in the 
cities and towns no animals would be more 
missed than the draught dogs. 
It is a common custom among dog owners of 
the Continent of Europe to cut and multilate the 
ears of their dogs. As there appears to be no 
law against this useless and cruel practice, it is 
not uncommon to see dogs on the open market, 
and which are offered for sale, with their ears 
yet raw and sore after a shiftless operation of 
cropping. They still bleed, and no one thinks of 
taking notice. No reason has been given for 
cropping. Even were the cartilage of the ears 
removed as a preventive, that would be a mis¬ 
take, since the orifice of the ear being left ex¬ 
posed, the strong and long fangs of the Belgian 
draught dog could do great injury in fighting 
bouts to the under dog. These market-going 
dogs have to haul their loads to town each work¬ 
ing day, week in and week out. They experi¬ 
ence all the vagaries of the weather, the heat 
and flies of the summer, and the cold northwest 
blasts from the German ocean during the winter. 
The flaps of their ears must be always some ad¬ 
ditional comfort to them, and they should be left 
as nature ordained. Several of the other dogs 
are cropped, notably the little griffons, the Great 
Danes and sometimes the Dalmations. A 
thoroughly representative Belgian draught dog 
has, and should have, a great deal of strength 
and activity about him. There is more of the 
Great Dane or German boarhound in him than 
there is of the English mastiff. As it is the 
custom to crop Danes, the practice is continued 
on his smaller cousins, on the principle of crop¬ 
ping the ears of any dog, cutting his tail and 
styling him a terrier. 
In recent years more attention has been paid 
to the working dogs of Belgium, and a good deal 
has been accomplished for them, as regards their 
general appearance, condition and usefulness. 
Not only have prizes been given at shows, but 
they have been introduced at other events in all 
the full panoply of new and heavily mounted 
and ornamented harness, ribbons and freshly 
painted carts. Just as the coster-monger’s donkey 
is encouraged at the International Horse Show 
in London, so has it been thought fit to cater to 
the owners of Belgian draught dogs. 
The Society for the Betterment of the Belgian 
Draught Dogs has accomplished much good. The 
last available published list of officers of this 
society gives as president Baron Oscar Crom- 
brugghe de Loorhinge; vice-presidents, Comte 
Henri de Bylandt and Dr. J. Descamps; secre¬ 
tary, Comte de Serclaes de Wommersun, Chateau 
de Lubbeek, Louvain. So open and general is 
this society that a person of good character may 
become a member by paying the small fee of 20 
cents. 
A large number of Belgian dogs have from 
time to time been purchased for and used as 
pack dogs in Alaska or for expeditions in other 
countries. The harness provided for these dogs 
consists of a collar like that on a leading horse, 
a back band and traces. In the case of shaft 
harness there is a pack saddle, and the usual 
tugs as found in an ordinary equine equipment. 
When a dog is used for the purposes of a baker’s 
cart he is hitched to the vehicle, a band or breast 
collar is put on, and his head is free save, gen¬ 
erally, for a leather muzzle. Six or ten two and 
three-gallon milk cans may be the load in a milk 
cart. In four-wheel vehicles the pole is used, 
one dog on either side, and sometimes assisted 
by one or two others hitched separately to the 
ironwork of the fore carriage. 
There are of course several kinds of these 
draught dogs, and many of them are big, strong 
mongrels, more useful dian ornamental. But 
Comte de Bylandt and others have drawn up a 
lucid description of a good representative dog of 
this kind. In general appearance the draught 
dog should be cobby and strongly built. His 
head must be large, skull broad and well de¬ 
veloped; muzzle rather short, jaws of equal 
length; teeth strong, healthy and white. Nose, 
black, short and well developed. Eyes, large, 
dark and intelligent. Ears, of medium size, 
hanging and never cut. Neck, short, strong and 
heavy. Shoulders, broad. Chest, strong and 
broad. Back, straight, broad and strong. Loins, 
short, broad and well muscled. Belly, well made, 
not drawn up. Legs, well boned, strong and 
muscular; stifles, broad, lean and bent. Tail, 
always docked, 2% to 3V2 inches long. Skin, 
thick and loose. Coat, smooth or wiry. Color, 
fawn or brindle with black mask. Height at 
shoulder, from 26 to 31% inches. Weight, dogs, 
minimum of 112 pounds; bitches, minimum of 
100 pounds. 
