is to attach the colt to a strong steady horse, that will neither bite nor kick him, and be able to withstand the plunges the colt may choose to make. The attachment is made by a cart-rope being first fastened round the girth of the old horse, and then passed round that of the colt, leaving as little space between their bodies as is required for ploughing; and to afford no liberty to advance or retire beyond a step or two before or behind the old horse. Beside the usual rein employed by the ploughman, the horse-breaker should have another in his hand from the colt's head. Thus equipped in plough-harness, the first yoking of the colt should be to an old cart-wheel, placed on its dished face on ploughed land, furnished with a swing-tree, which he should be made to draw, while the horse walks beside him; and in drawing this, the reins should be used, and the appropriate language spoken, that he may associate the changes of his motions with the accompanying sounds, and which are indicated by the reins while guiding him. I remark in passing, how curious it is for us to have adopted the Roman method of breaking young horses by the employment of the wheel, as set forth in the motto selected from Virgil. Should the colt offer to wheel round, the gentlest means should be used in putting him again in his proper position, as the start may have been made from fear, or from the tickling of a part of the harness. When a hind-leg gets over a trace chain, the chain should be unhooked from the swing-tree, and hooked on again after the colt has been put in his right position. Should he offer to rear or kick, from a disposition to break away, the old horse should be urged on to the walk, and be made to pull him along, while a smart tip of the whip will take the courage out of him. According as he evinces a disposition to go on quietly in the work, should the length of time be determined at which he should work at the wheel. When submissive, he should be yoked to the plough, for there is no species of work which calls forth the sympathy of horses to one another in so short a time as when working with this implement; and after a few landings, it will be seen that he will work with energy and good-will, and then he should be kindly spoken to, encouraged, and even fondled. The probability is, that his desire for the draught may be evinced too keenly, but the pace of the old horse should be subdued, and the keenness mitigated by the rein and tug, which the short reins are called, that pass from the head of one horse to the collar of the other, and which, in this particular instance, is fastened to the rope round the girth of the old horse. It is interesting to the farmer to see his young horse put his shoulder to the first work he has ever tried with a spirit even beyond his strength; and while he continues at the work until his nostrils distend and flanks heave, his owner cannot help having a regard for him, heightened by a feeling of pity for the unconscious creature acquiring experience of work at which he is about to be doomed to toil for the remainder of his life. It should be mentioned as a precaution, that all the harness employed about the first yoking of a young horse should be fresh and strong, and not likely to break, even by violence. The colt should be broke in to the cart as well as the plough. He is yoked into a single horse-cart, but great care should be used on the first yoking, that he get no fright, by any strap rubbing against him, or the shafts falling upon him when raised up to allow of his being backed below them, for if frightened at the first yoking to a cart, a long time will elapse ere he will stand the yoking quietly. The horse-breaker should stand in the cart using double reins; and a rein should be held by a man walking first on each side of his head, and then at a little distance on the sides of the road. The chief danger is kicking, and thereby injuring the hocks against the front-bar of the cart, to prevent which a rope should be placed across the top of the colt's rump, and fastened to the harness on the rump, and on each side to the shaft of the cart. There is little danger of his running away while all the reins are good. He will take with the traces of the cart more readily at first than with the trams, as they are so similar to the yoking he has felt at the plough, and he is conscious of having his companion behind him. (2459.) On the first use of harness by a young horse, the shoulders and back are liable to become inflamed, and even the skin to be broken by the collar and saddle. It should be ascertained, in the first place, that the collar he is to work in fits him properly; and if it does not, it should be made to do so, before he use it, as the first day's use may so injure his skin as to give him pain for weeks thereafter. The usual affection is heated swellings in the line of the collar and seat of the saddle. A good lotion to be applied to those parts whenever the colt comes out of yoke is a solution of common salt in warm water, and, when cold, applied as a fomentation with a sponge. The water not only cools the skin, and keeps down the inflammation, but the salt hardens it for use; and in the course of a short time, particularly if the weather be dry, the skin will become inured to the pressure of the harness. A young horse may be broke in for work any time in the course of the spring, from the beginning of working the turnip-land to its completion. I can affirm the efficiency of the plan I have recommended by repeated experience, and it is one unattended with the slightest accident in practising it. (2460.) It is the usual practice to shoe and dock the young horse before putting him to the yoke. I think he should first be broke in, and then he will suffer himself to be shod the more quietly. At the first shoeing it will be useful, in making him stand quietly, and in diverting his attention, to take the old horse he has been working with to the smithy. By nailing a mat against the wall, and making him stand alongside the mat, it will save his skin being ruffled should he rub against the wall, whilst the wall will form a firm barrier against his retreating farther from the blacksmith. After the fore and hind feet of one side have been shod, these can next be turned to the wall to get his other feet shod. Gentle and coaxing means should be used, though a twitch on the nose has a powerful command over a horse. The first shoes of a young horse should be light, with no heels, and the hoofs should not be pared down much at first. Rather renew the shoes, and pare the hoofs down again in a short time, than encumber a colt at first with heavy shoes with heels, to the risk of trampling himself, as to cure the effects of a severe tramp may cost much more than the price of many sets of new shoes. As to docking a draught-horse, I think it a necessary operation, because a long rump is very apt to get injured when the horse is yoked in the trams, by coming against the body of the cart, and in coup-carts especially it can scarcely escape being nipped when the body of the cart is brought down upon it when lying on the front-bar, and besides a draught-horse has no use for a long tail. A neat swish is all that is requisite at any time, and in winter even that is apt to become loaded with mud on dirty roads. Some writers affect to believe it presumptuous in man to deprive any animal of 6 of the joints of the vertebral column which Nature has given him; and no doubt were our horses always idle, especially in summer, when a long tail is of essential service in whisking off flies, the vertebræ ought to be kept entire ; but surely there is no greater absurdity in docking the tail, than in driving iron nails into the crust of the hoofs of a horse, and yet without iron shoes to protect it, the horny foot of the horse would be beaten to pieces on hard roads at the pace many kinds of horses are driven along them; and there is no necessary cruelty in the act of docking, for it is an operation of the simplest form when properly done, that is, when effected in a joint where the wound is easily healed. As to nicking the tail and cropping the ears, such operations are never performed on draughthorses, and at best only serve to disfigure the appearance of the animals subjected to such unnecessary torture. 59. OF SOWS FARROWING OR LITTERING. "Sows ready to farrow this time of the year, Are for to be made of, and counted full dear; More great than the loss of two calves of the cow." TUSSER. (2461.) It should be so managed where there are more than one broodsow on a farm, to have one to bring forth pigs early in spring; but, at the same time, it should be borne in mind, that young pigs are very susceptible of cold, and if exposed to it, though they may not actually die, their growth will be so stinted as to prevent them attaining to a large size, however fat they may be made. Even the most comfortable housing will not protect them from the influence of the external air, any more than certain constitutional temperaments can be rendered comfortable in any circumstance in spring, when under the influence of the east wind. From March to September may, perhaps, be considered as the period of the year when young pigs thrive best. (2462.) Whenever a brood-sow shews symptoms of approaching parturition; that is, when the vulva is observed to enlarge and become red, it is time to prepare the sty for her reception, for she will keep her reckoning not only to a day but to an hour. The period of gestation of a sow is 112 days, or 16 weeks. The apartments meant to accommodate broodsows in the steading are marked by the letter c in figs. 3 and 4, Plates III. and IV. They consist of an outer-court 18 feet long by 8 feet broad, enclosed by a door, as represented in fig. 23, and described at 5 in (68.), and an inner apartment 8 feet by 6, roofed in. This is the usual form of a sty for sows, but others more convenient for overlooking the state of the sow and her pigs is when the outer court and inner apartment are placed under one roof, that is, in a roofed shed, or in a house which may be shut in by a door. The litter allowed to a brood-sow should be rather scanty and of short texture, such as chaff, short straw, or dried leaves of trees, as young pigs are apt at first to be smothered or squeezed to death among long straw, when they get under it. When a sow has liberty before she is about to pig, she will carry straw in her mouth, and collect it in a heap in some retired corner of a shed, and bury herself amongst it, and the chance is, in such a case, that some of the pigs will be lain down upon unseen and smothered by the sow herself; when seen she will carefully push them aside with her snout before lying down. Some sows have a trick of wandering away to litter in a quiet place, such as in a field of corn, in a plantation amongst underwood, or in a dry ditch at the root of an old hedge or tree. I remember of a sow being missing for upwards of a fortnight, not a person having seen her leave home, or being able to discover where she had gone to; but she was suspected of having disappeared for the purpose of littering. At length she appeared one day craving for food at the kitchen-door, bearing evident signs of having littered, and of having suckled pigs. She was cautiously tracked to her hiding-place, though jealous of being discovered; and it was found that she had formed a nest with the straw gathered from the adjoining field of wheat, in a secluded part of a dry ditch at the root of an old thorn-hedge, about 300 yards from the steading. She had subsisted as long as she could upon the corn, but hunger at length drove her to the house in search of food. Had she been allowed, she would, no doubt, have come to the house every day for food; but means, of course, were used to have the pigs conveyed to the steading, and this was a work of some difficulty, as the sow herself was perfectly savage when any one approached her young ones; and these were so wild in their habits, that they eluded capture for a long time among the standing corn. At length, by the assistance of the shepherd's dog, which seemed to enjoy the affair as sport, they were all caught, a large litter, and, on being conveyed home in a large basket, the sow naturally followed her captive young ones. I remember of another sow taking up her abode in the bottom of a pease-stack, where a small hole was only left as an entrance, but a large chamber was formed in the interior, and it was found impracticable to dislodge her from this stronghold, she keeping every man and the shepherd's dog at bay, and he was too knowing to venture to attack her in single combat; so she was let alone, and she produced her young there, and kept them until they were able to run about, food having been set down for her. I mention these instances of the peculiar habits of some domesticated sows, merely to shew you the propriety of securing the brood-sow that is about to farrow, and particularly one that is given to wander abroad in search of a nest, in a proper sty some time before the period of her reckoning. (2463). Knowing the day of her reckoning, she should be attended to pretty frequently, not that she will probably require assistance in the act of parturition, like a cow or a ewe, but merely to see that all the pigs are safe, and to remove any one immediately that may be dead when pigged, or may have died in the pigging. I have heard, however, of a sow in high condition which died because the second pig, on com |