The Portland daily press., 1879-02-13
AGRICULTURAL.
The Check-Reiu,

Whipping and overworking do not torture
like the check-rein. When you compel a
horse to contract the muscles just under the
top OF the collar, in order to sustain the head
. foot, more or less, above its natural place,
and then hold them thus contracted, the
strain on those muscles soon produces great
harm. II You don't believe it, watch the ami
NAL; look at his eyes and ears! / am sure
you can't misunderstood that face. See him
carry bis head around on one side, and then
away round on the other side. Now in mo-
nent you will see him throw his nose up in
'front.' as high as he can, three or four times.
mat struggle for relief he continues all the
Gay long. When you take off the check, he
viii hang down his head low. and show in
MS lace sense of relief which am sure you
cannot misunderstood. The long strain
wastes his muscles, and produces that ugly
hollow which is now so common just under
the collar.
The London Horse Book says: s'The check
rein is useless and painful encumbrance,
introduced by vanity and retained by thought
lessness amounting to cruelty"
Prof. Pritchard of the Royal Veterinary
College tEondon) says: "To sum up in a
word, the check-rein lessons the horses
strength, brings on disease, keeps him in
pain, frets and Injuries his mouth, and spoils
bis temper
~ ~; ioI.ninS, y teIuary surgeon Vi Cue
Royal Engineers (London) says; ''Nothing
can be more absurd than the check-rein. 1t
Is extremely cruel. 1t is not only the head
and neck that suffer, but from his head to
his tail, from his shoulder to his hoof, he
suffers more or less"
The emiaent John Adam Mcbride, Pro-
lessor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery In
the Royal Agricultural College, exclaims !;
"Could these speechless sufferers answer the
inquiries Why do you continually toss your
heads while standing in the harness? Why
do you stretch open your mouths, shake your
heads and gnash your teeth? Why do you
turn your heads back toward your sides
They would answer: All this is done to get
lelief from the agony we are enduring by
having our heads kept erect and our necks
bent by tight brides and CALLING bits"
The author of that excellent and able work,
1.-THE Horse in Health and Disease" after
discussing at length the mischief done by the
check-rein, closes with these words: "To
sum up the consequences of the gag-bearipg
remit inflcts intense agony on the horse,
impedes the action Of his muscles, and by
making him fractions aud miserable spoils
his temper"
Care Of Stock i'm Winter.
Farmers do not consult their own inter-
ests when they neglect to provide warm, COM
Portable quarters for their live stock in win
Ter, TO say nothing of the inhumanity in ex-
posing cattle to the pltiless storms and cold
winter winds unprotected. have seen farm
ers turn their cattle into field in the dead of
winter, where there was hay stack, and
leave them there till the hay was consumed,
or rather wasted, as 1t was thrown around up
on the snow, and much of il was trampled
under the feet of the cattle and was lost,
These farmers could sit by their warm fires
and smoke their pipes and tell stories while
storms were raging without, the thermome-
ter far below zero, and their poor cattle suf-
fering in the icy blasts Can it be possible
that any such farmers exist in 1878? Is
there one so dull in intellect as not to know
that it Is reckless waste of fodder to feed
cattle In this manner? Besides the inhu-
manity in thus treating cattle, they require
about one-third more feed to keep them in
good condition as to flesh than they do when
honsed in warm quarters; and we may
safely estimate the increased expense of
wintering stock in the fields, or in cold
stables, at from ten to fifteen dollars a
head, when hay is worth fifteen dollars a
ton. A COW ordinarily requires two tons,
OF hay to winter her in warm quarters,
with meal, roots, etc., If in milk; but
where she suffers from the cold, an ext
half ton hay must be added to her allowance
also extra meal, roots, ETC.. consequently
farmer with twenty head OF cattle, who win
teri. them properly saves from 5000 to $500 an
nually over the cost of wlntering on the care
less system, that some farmers adopt. In
twenty years he saves, say $1,000; and it is
by doing things right that some farmers get
rich, while doing them wrong tends TO pow
erty.-Dirigo Rural.