The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-02-01
The Horse and His Degeneracy.

History chronicles no improvement in
the horse made by the agency of man.
The horses of the DAYS of Pharaoh, or OF
Homer, have their superiors in no part OF
the civilized world TO-DAY. The Arabs
have for ages been noted for the excel
lence of their horses, but that excellence
was not created, nor has it been in.
creased By the arts of man. Since the
time of Cromwell the horses of England
have steadily degenerated. Those
most couversant with the matter say
that this degeneraey has been the most
marked and rapid during the isst fifty
years. The horses of this country lack
the value of their ancestors of the Revo-
lutiouary period. Nowhere, or at nc
time. can man boast of improving the
horse by the arts of breeding. WHAT'S
the reason of this?
The horse, the OK, the hog and the
sheep comprise the four great classes oil
domesticated farm animals. In certain
directions man has improved these
three last These Improvements have
made them more valuable. The OK has
been bred to make more flesh from the
same amount of food, aud to Law on fat
at an earlier age; the COW has been
bred TO give instead of a supply of mill
barely large enough to sustain her
young, a bountiful yield, and of
richer quality; the hog has been bred
into veritable machine to convert food
into pork: the sheep has been bred to
yield more WOOL and of finer texture,
and to make more mutton. All these
changes have been beneficial because
the value OF the animal lay in its pro-
duction of beef, milk, pork. wool or
mutton, as the case might be 1t is
true that these changes have been ac-
complished at the expense of vigor aud
endurance. These two qualities are inn
portGlt IN the hog. OK or sheep, but
those that have been developed SO far
oyershadow their lessening that on the
whole we can say that the arts OF man
have improved our kline, swine and
sheep.
But Il is not so with the horse. Its
value does not depend upon the guam
tity and quality of its flesh. milk OF
bodily covering Unlike the others. its
value depends upon the work it can do.
Hence vigor and endurance are the
prime essentials of good horse. But
IS man has leSsened the vigor and en-
durance of the hog. OK and sheep, so he
has of the horse. This is the invariable
result of human art. Whenever man
hampers with the work of nature he is
certain to lessen bodily vigor. 1t could
not be otherwise. For the course of
nature, undisturbed and undehecred. Is
always towards the greatest health.
Man changes the course of nature and
the result is lessened vigor and endur-
ance.
Man has improved some qualities of
the horse. He has increased its speed,
perhaps. but only for short distances.
Our race-horses of to-day would make
sorry record with those OF DAYS no
longer past than those of the s-pony ex-
press. to say nothing of the courierS Of
centuries ago, because they have been
made To deteriorate in vigor and endur-
ance- We have ponderous, heavy
horses to-day: but they can not do as
much work before the pillow or dray as
those of the eighteenth century. We
Fan rot point anywhere to horses pro-
duced BY breeding that are the equals
Of the horses of the DAYS of chivalrv.
They lack not only in vigor and hardi-
hood, but In intelligence As the per-
feet symmetry Of development by the
course OF nature has been destroyed by
maH- the intelligence of the animal
lessened- Whenever the hand of man
has touched his equine friend it has
been only TO mar
This decrease in the excellence os the
horse can not be shifted from man to
time One instance alone demonstrates
he ua airness OF this. The Andalus;sns
are now mere ponies. yet they are the
descendants of those noble beasts ridden
70 victory by theSpanish ehiFalry in the
lays when the valor of the horse was as
Important as the valor of the knightiy
rider. Taken from their hills and val
Ieys to serve IN the haunts of men. and
70 Be subjected to the arts OF breeding,
hey have sadly degenerated. But the
horses of the Spanish explorers of both
North and South America escaped, and
to-day the descendants of these same
Spanish horses are, under the nurture
pf nature and nature ways, the superb
eild horses of the new world They are
he work of nature; the Andalusian
ponies are the work of mans art
6rafrse Farmer.