Agriculture for Beginners Part 25

DESCRIPTIVE TABLE

ADAPTATION AS Crop FOOD FOR ANIMALS LIFE REMARKS

Alfalfa Hay Perennial All animals like it; hogs eat it even when it is dry.

Red clover Hay and pasture Perennial Best of the clovers for hay.

Alsike clover Hay and pasture Perennial Seeds itself for twenty years. This clover is a great favorite with bees.

Mammoth clover Hay and pasture Perennial Best for green manure.

White clover Pasture Perennial Excellent for lawns and bees.

j.a.pan clover Pasture Perennial Excellent for forest and old soils.

Cowpea Hay and grain Annual Used for hay, green manure, and pastures.

Soy bean Hay and grain Annual Often put in silo with corn.

Vetches Hay and soiling Annual Pasture for sheep and swine. With cereals it makes excellent hay and soiling-food.

CHAPTER X

DOMESTIC ANIMALS

The progress that a nation is making can with reasonable accuracy be measured by the kind of live stock it raises. The general rule is, poor stock, poor people. All the prosperous nations of the globe, especially the grain-growing nations, get a large share of their wealth from raising improved stock. The stock bred by these nations is now, however, very different from the stock raised by the same nations years ago. As soon as man began to progress in the art of agriculture he became dissatisfied with inferior stock. He therefore bent his energies to raise the standard of excellence in domestic animals.

By slow stages of animal improvement the ugly, thin-flanked wild boar of early times has been transformed into the sleek Berkshire or the well-rounded Poland-China. In the same manner the wild sheep of the Old World have been developed into wool and mutton breeds of the finest excellence. By constant care, attention, and selection the thin, long-legged wild ox has been bred into the bounteous milk-producing Jerseys and Holsteins or into the Shorthorn mountains of flesh. From the small, bony, coa.r.s.e, and s.h.a.ggy horse of ancient times have descended the heavy Norman, or Percheron, draft horse and the fleet Arab courser.

The matter of meat-production is one of vital importance to the human race, for animal food must always supply a large part of man's ration.

Live stock of various kinds consume the coa.r.s.er foods, like the gra.s.ses, hays, and grains, which man cannot use. As a result of this consumption they store in their bodies the exact substances required for building up the tissues of man's body.

When the animal is used by man for food, one cla.s.s of foods stored away in the animal's body produces muscle; another produces fat, heat, and energy. The food furnished by the slaughter of animals seems necessary to the full development of man. It is true that the flesh of an animal will not support human life so long as would the grain that the animal ate while growing, but it is also true that animal food does not require so much of man's force to digest it. Hence the use of meat forces a part of man's life-struggle on the lower animal.

When men feed grain to stock, the animals receive in return power and food in their most available forms. Men strengthen the animal that they themselves may be strengthened. One of the great questions, then, for the stock-grower's consideration is how to make the least amount of food fed to animals produce the most power and flesh.

SECTION LIII. HORSES

While we have a great many kinds of horses in America, horses are not natives of this country. Just where wild horses were first tamed and used is not certainly known. It is believed that in early ages the horse was a much smaller animal than it now is, and that it gradually attained its present size. Where food was abundant and nutritious and the climate mild and healthful, the early horses developed large frames and heavy limbs and muscles; on the other hand, where food was scarce and the climate cold and bleak, the animals remained as dwarfed as the ponies of the Shetland Islands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 239. THE FAMILY PET]

One of the first records concerning the horse is found in Genesis xlix, 17, where Jacob speaks of "an adder that biteth the horse heels."

Pharaoh took "six hundred chosen chariots" and "with all the horses and chariots" pursued the Israelites. The Greeks at first drove the horse fastened to a rude chariot; later they rode on its back, learning to manage the animal with voice or switch and without either saddle or bridle. This thinking people soon invented the snaffle bit, and both rode and drove with its aid. The curb bit was a Roman invention. Shoeing was not practiced by either Greeks or Romans. Saddles and harnesses were at first made of skins and sometimes of cloth.

Among the Tartars of middle and northern Asia and also among some other nations, mare's milk and the flesh of the horse are used for food. Old and otherwise worthless horses are regularly fattened for the meat markets of France and Germany. Various uses are made of the different parts of a horse's body. The mane and tail are used in the manufacture of mattresses, and also furnish a haircloth for upholstering; the skin is tanned into leather; the hoofs are used for glue, and the bones for making fertilizer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 240. PERCHERON HORSE (A DRAFT TYPE)]

Climate, food, and natural surroundings have all aided in producing changes in the horse's form, size, and appearance. The varying circ.u.mstances under which horses have been raised have given rise to the different breeds. In addition, the masters' needs had much to do in developing the type of horses wanted. Some masters desired work horses, and kept the heavy, muscular, stout-limbed animals; others desired riding and driving horses, so they saved for their use the light-limbed, angular horses that had endurance and mettle. The following table gives some of the different breeds and the places of their development:

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 241.

Diagram shows the proper shape of the fore and hind legs of a horse.

When the straight lines divide the legs equally, the leg action is straight and regular]

I. _Draft, or Heavy, Breeds_

1. Percheron, from the province of Perche, France.

2. French Draft, developed in France.

3. Belgian Draft, developed by Belgian farmers.

4. Clydesdale, the draft horse of Scotland.

5. Suffolk Punch, from the eastern part of England.

6. English Shire, also from the eastern part of England.

II. _Carriage, or Coach, Breeds_

1. Cleveland Bay, developed in England.

2. French Coach, the gentleman's horse of France.

3. German Coach, from Germany.

4. Oldenburg Coach, Oldenburg, Germany.

5. Hackney, the English high-stepper.

III. _Light, or Roadster, Breeds_

1. American Trotter, developed in America.

2. Thoroughbred, the English running horse.

3. American Saddle Horse, from Kentucky and Virginia.

There is a marked difference in the form and type of these horses, and on this difference their usefulness depends.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 242. WIDE HOCK This horse stands great strains and is not fatigued easily]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 243. NARROW HOCK This horse becomes exhausted very easily]

The draft breeds have short legs, and hence their bodies are comparatively close to the ground. The depth of the body should be about the same as the length of leg. All draft horses should have upright shoulders, so as to provide an easy support for the collar. The hock should be wide, so that the animal shall have great leverage of muscle for pulling. A horse having a narrow hock is not able to draw a heavy load and is easily exhausted and liable to curb-diseases (see Figs. 242 and 243).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 244. THE ROADSTER TYPE]

The legs of all kinds of horses should be straight; a line dropped from the point of the shoulder to the ground should divide the knees, canon, fetlock, and foot into two equal parts. When the animal is formed in this way the feet have room to be straight and square, with just the breadth of a hoof between them (Fig. 241).

Roadsters are lighter in bone and less heavily muscled; their legs are longer than those of the draft horses and, as hors.e.m.e.n say, more "daylight" can be seen under the body. The neck is long and thin, but fits nicely into the shoulders. The shoulders are sloping and long and give the roadster ability to reach well out in his stride. The head is set gracefully on the neck and should be carried with ease and erectness.

Every man who is to deal with horses ought to become, by observation and study, an expert judge of forms, qualities, types, defects, and excellences.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 245. SIDE VIEW OF LEGS The diagram shows how the straight lines ought to cross the legs of a properly shaped horse]

The horse's foot makes an interesting study. The h.o.r.n.y outside protects the foot from mud, ice, and stones. Inside the hoof are the bones and gristle that serve as cushions to diminish the shock received while walking or running on hard roads or streets. When shoeing the horse the frog should not be touched with the knife. It is very seldom that any cutting need be done. Many blacksmiths do not know this and often greatly injure the foot.

Since the horse has but a small stomach, the food given should not be too bulky. In proportion to the horse's size, its grain ration should be larger than that of other animals. Draft horses and mules, however, can be fed a more bulky ration than other horses, because they have larger stomachs and consequently have more room to store food.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 246. HOW TO MEASURE A HORSE]