Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/411

Rh HOUSES.] colts exclusively for their farm-work. The colts are highly fed, and worked very gently until four years old, when they are sold to the London brewers, often at very great prices. The same breed is largely used in England for ordinary farm labour, although not found of such gigantic proportions as in those districts where they are bred for the special destination just referred to. Although very docile, their short step, sluggish gait, large consumption of food, and liability to foot lameness, render them less pro fitable for ordinary farm-work than the breeds about to be mentioned. The Suffolk Punch is a well-marked breed which has long been cultivated in the county from which it takes its name. These horses are, for the most part, of a sorrel, bay, or chestnut colour, and are probably of Scandinavian origin. They are compact, as their name imports, hardy, very active, and exceedingly honest pullers. These horses at one time were very coarse in their form and rather slow ; but they have now been so much improved in form and action that we find them the chief prize-takers at recent exhibitions of the Royal Agricultural Society. The Cleveland Bays are properly carriage-horses ; but still in their native districts they are largely employed for field work. Mr Milburn says &quot; The Cleveland, as a pure breed, is losing something of its distinctiveness. It is running into a proverb, that a Cleveland horse is too stiff for a hunter, and too light for a coacher ; but there are still remnants of the breed, though less carefully kept dis tinctive than may be wished by advocates of purity. Still, the contour of the farm-horses of Cleveland has the light ness, and hardiness, and steadiness of the breed; and it is singular that while the lighter soils have horses more cal culated for drays, the strong-land farmer has the compact and smaller, but comparatively more powerful animal.&quot; In the north-eastern counties of England, and the ad jacent Scottish borders, compact, clean-legged, active horses, of medium size, with a remote dash of blood in them, are generally preferred to those of a heavier and slower kind. One needs only to see how such horses get along at turnip- sowing, or with a heavy load in a one-horse cart, to be convinced of their fitness for the general work of a farm. The Clydesdale Horses are not excelled by any cart breed in the kingdom for general usefulness. They belong to the larger class of cart-horses, sixteen hands being an average height. Brown and bay are now the prevailing colours. In the district whose name they bear the breeding of them for sale is extensively prosecuted, and is conducted with much care and success. Liberal premiums are offered by the local agricultural societies for good stallions. Horses of this breed are peculiarly distinguished for the free step with which they move along when exerting their strength in cart or plough. Their merits are now so generally appreciated that they are getting rapidly diffused over the country. Many small farmers in Clydesdale make a business of raising entire colts, which they either sell for stallions or send into distant counties to serve for hire in that capacity. In the Highlands of Scotland, a breed of hardy and very serviceable ponies, or &quot; garrons, &quot; as the natives call them, are found in great numbers. In their native glens they are employed in tillage, and although unfit for stated farm-work in the low country, are even there often used in light carts for work requiring despatch rather than great power. Similar ponies abound in Wales. Section 2. Breeding of Cart-Horses. In breeding cart-horses regard must be had to the pur pose for which they are designed. If the farmer contem plates the raising of colts for sale, he must aim at a larger frame than if he simply wishes to keep up his own stock 385 of working cattle. These considerations will so far guide him as to the size of the mares and stallions which he selects to breed from ; but vigorous constitutions, perfect freedom from organic disease, symmetrical form, and good temper are qualities always indispensable. Nothing is more common than to see mares used for breeding merely because, from lameness or age, they have ceased to be valuable for labour. Lameness from external injury is, of course, no disqualification : but it is mere folly to expect valuable progeny from unsound, mis-shapen, ill-tempered, or delicate dams, or even from really good ones, when their vigour has declined from age. A farmer may grudge to lose the labour of a first-rate mare for two or three months at his busiest season ; but if he cannot make arrangements for doing this, he had better let breeding alone altogether ; for it is only by producing horses of the best quality that it can be worth his while to breed them at all. It is always desirable that both sire and dam should have arrived at maturity before being put to breed. The head of the cart-horse should not be large, at least not heavy in the bones of the face and jaws, nor loaded with flesh. Full development of brain is, indeed, of great importance, and hence a horse somewhat wide between the ears is to be preferred. Prick ears and narrow forehead have by some been reckoned excellences, but we have so invariably noticed such horses to be easily startled, given to shying, and wanting in courage and intelligence, that we regard such a form of head as a defect to be avoided. The eye should be bright, full, and somewhat prominent, the neck inclining to thickness, of medium length, and slightly arched, and the shoulders oblique. Upright shoulders have been commended as an advantage in a horse for draught, it being alleged that such a form enables him to throw his weight better into his collar. It should be remembered, however, that the horses which display the greatest power in drawing heavy loads are characterised by muscular vigour and nervous energy rather than mere weight of carcase ; and these qualities are more usually found in connection with the oblique shoulder than the upright one not to mention that this form is indispensable to that free and full step so necessary in a really useful farm-horse. &quot;The back should be straight and broad, the ribs well arched, and the false ribs of due length, so as to give the abdomen capacity and roundness. The tail should be well set out, not too drooping, and the quarters should be full and muscular. The horse should girth well, and have his height in his body rather than in his. legs, so as to look leess than measurement proves him to be. The forelegs should be strong, and flat below the knee, and by no means round and gummy either before or behind, neither should they have white hair about them, nor much hair of any colour. The hocks should be broad in front, and neither too straight nor too crooked, nor yet cat-hammed. All diseases of this joint, whether curbs, spavins, or thoroughpins, are sufficient grounds for rejecting a horse. The feet are a matter of very much importance. The tendency of many heavy horses is to have thin horn and flat feet. A stallion possess ing such feet is eiceedingly objectionable. Plenty of horn is o recommendation, and the feet had better be too large than too small. The brood mare should possess as many of the points now enumerated as possible. If the mare is small but symmetrical, we may very properly select a large stallion, provided he has good action. If, on the other hand, the mare is large and has a tendency to coarseness, we should select a middle-sized horse of symmetrical appearance. &quot; 1 Sixteen hands is a good height for a farm-horse. Except for very heavy land, we have always had more satisfaction from horses slightly below this standard than above it. We have repeatedly put a well-bred saddle mare to a cart-horse, and have invariably found the produce to prove excellent farm-horses. The opposite cross, betwixt a cart- mare and blood stallion, is nearly as certain to prove un gainly, vicious, and worthless. These horses are generally 1 Morton s Cyclopedia, of Agriculture article &quot;Horse.&quot; I. 49