Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1868-02-21
[From the Country Gentleman.1
Horses in Vermont.

MEssRs. /. TICKER & SoN-Noticing an
article headed d" Horses and giving the sta
tistics Of horses in Vermont for the year 1866,
(39 .222,) which, compared with the year
1850 (69, OH shows a decrease of over 80
per cent. am moved 10 write You a few
lines on the horse question.
While Vermont has given much attention
to the improvement of her sheep, and has
succeeded SO far. that no one conyersant with
the whole matter would undertake to scratch
out with a pen, what has been accomplished
by long years of close study and iudicious
crossing and breeding. our horses have been de
crcasing in number, and fear degenerat-
ing in those qualities that make a valuable
horse. 1t Is true. We have 4 few fine speci-
mems remaining. but when we look back ff-
teen or twenty years. we had then many
more good stock horses than We now have.
and it was no uncommon thing at that time
to find four or five pairs Of nice matched car
riage horses in many Of the towns in northern
and western Vermont.
| am convinced that great improvement
may and ought to be made in the horses of
Vermont, and much is vet 10 be learned, in my
opinion, in regard to the best manner Of rails
ing them. | was in conversation Il few years
ago with the late Col. Orvis, celebrated
cattle raiser Of St. Lawrence county, y. Y,
who said to me that he could give me the
whole secret Of success in producing good
cattle, in a very few words, which were as
follows Get a good breed and make them
comfortable neither let them want for
food. nor suffer with heat, cold or wet. But
in my experience in raising horses for the
last twenty-five years, the same rule will not
apply unless the horse is comfortable where
the horned animal would die | have no
question but that better horses can be pro-
duced by exposure out Of doors, away from
sheds or barns, during the whole time of
their growth, getting their feed in the way
nature designed they should, than can be
produced by the commonly practiced way.
The horse viii generally grow larger, much
better developed. more hardy and healthy,
and less liable to disease or accident, besides
saving much expense in the way of fodder.
| took from pasture thirteen horses and
colts on the l4th day of this month, that up
to that time had had nothing but grass, at
which time | could not see that any Of them
had lost flesh. unless three or four breeding
mares whose colts We're still with them and
had it not been for these mares. they might
still be in the same pasture, but fearing that
the colts might, by remaining longer on the
mares, injure the next foal, l took them up
to separate them. There is no trouble or
difficulty in pasturing cattle and horses here
in Vermont from nine to ten months OF the
wear in all seasons, and most years longer.
For the last twenty years ! have had from ten
To twenty work horses and colts that have
run out, and they have not consumed an
average of 500 pounds Of fodder to the ami
NAL
would like to be one of eight or ten to
invest S5O. 900 in farm near the lake, and
devote it exclusively to producing something
better in the way of horses. than we now
have. Ezra MEEcH. ShlHvrn, ", Jan.
] oi