The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-03-27
Collar Calls and Sweeney.

Probably no one item, in the long
list of abuses to which the horse is sub
Jet, causes more pain to the animal,
and annoyance and loss to the owner.
than CALLED and sweenied shoulders,
those of horses that work to the plow
or draw heavy wagons.
II is no uncommon thing to see the
intelligent and humane farmers work.
ing day by day with great patches of
skin rubbed from their shoulders by
an ill-ftting collar, the owner valnly
trying to push his busy spring work
and at the same time heal the rc.
fractory sores on the shoulders of his
stock.
This is one of the cases where very
emphatically the "ounce of preven-
tion is better than the pound of cure )
and, as the busy season is very rapidly
approaching, farmers would do well to
heed few hints from one who never
has horses with CALLED or sweenied
shoulders. In the first place, then,
look to your collars AMI see that they
are of the proper size and right kind Of
material even though you have to spend
few dollars for new ones to replace
some which, though not worn out, hu-
manity, as well as economy demand
that you throw away.
A good collar should be stuff. d with
curled hair, and lined with ticking, aud
when new, should be- just large enough
to meet and buckle i'll the first holes,
and when the horse has his head ele-
waited to about the position in which
you want him to carry it while at WORK,
there should be about space enough be-
tween the collar and neck al the bot
tom to thrust in the fingers Of one
hand; this to prevent choking when
pulling hard; more space than this will
allow the collar to slip up and down
and cause gals and sweeny.
In purchasing new collar for par
ticular horse, see that il fits as above
directed. Do not take the say so of the
harness maker or your teamster, because
a collar always gets larger as it is USED
and will soon become too large to be
used with safety.
The hames should fit tightly in their
place on the collar with the hooks
working from two to three inches
above the ''point' OF the shoulder ac
cording to the size of the horse and
the shape of the upper part of the
neck.
And now, havirg thus fitted collar
and hames, see that they are kept 40
adjusted, for as the warm weather
comes on the horse will lose flesh and
the collar need Frequently to be taken
up accordingly.
Should the collar become too large
after having been made as small as
possible it may be easily adjusted by
placing pad, made of old cloth, car.
pet, sheep-skin, or sack, and put it
under the entire collar 50 tha, the
edges may be doubled mp and the
hames be placed upon them to keep
them in place.
A good plan as the time draws neal
to put ycur horses to blowing, is TO
bathe their shoulders about twice q
week with decoction of white oak
bark, alum water or some other astrin
gent wash, to toughen the skin for
no matter if the horses have been kept
at work during the winter, the change
to plowing will always render then
liable to gals. might add to the
above that while getting well padded
collars for horses, let the farmer moi
forget to carefully pad the shoulder
themselves with healthy flesh by lib
eral feeding.-Cor. american Farm