The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-22


disease to one another. because they are
seldom kept closely together. The diet of
horses fits them for food purposes even
more than cows, and infinitely more than
swine or poultry.
The business of slaughtering horses for
their meat is undoubtedly on the increase
in the United States because large mar
ket has opened in Europe for horse meat,
especially when 1t is canned. The Ger
mans are eating it. though unconsciously,
in the form of sausage.
An unknown amount comes back to
America as canned meat, and not improb-
ably forms a staple item of diet in all
public or private institutions where feed
ing by contract is carried on. That this in
dustry will rapidly increase is certain from
the fact that horses are becoming cheaper
and more abundant. The farms out west
can better afford to feed horses with their
grain If they can sell the horses for their
meat
The result will be that If horses come
largely into the market as a food product
the younger horses will be killed off be-
fore they are two years old to save the ex-
pense OF longer feeding Them This will
do away with the last real reason against
the use of horse meat-that only old and
feeble horses are used.
A great gain will be made In preventing
the constant production of lame or feeble
horses by drivers Just as soon as horse
becomes little past his best strength and
speed the owners will sell them off to
butchers, just as ordinary cows and oxes
are sold The horse for driving and team
ing will be then a much finer animal
through q genuine Survival of the hit
test"
The business troubles in the United
States and the increasing number or men
without employment are empl asizng the
c,a tLat factor
utilized to make living cheaper and better
for the poorer classes. Meat-fed labor can
not compete with labor fed on rice or mac
caroni But meat-fed labor accomplishes
better work.
Few people realize how rigidly the old
Mosaic law, largely discarded even among
Jews, holds among the people at large.
On account of distinctions made by the
laws of Moses between animals clean and
unclean, many animals, on account OF
some peculiar arrangement OF their rect,
have been denied to the use of mankind
for food. The one exception is pork.
which is perhaps the most unfit for food
Of all meat on account OF the hltny haolls
and feeding of most swine.
Orientals decline to eat camel meat,
though this also is finding it's way to
Paris in larger amounts every year. Many
kinds of wild animals and birds are dis
liked from some similar prejudice. Car
nivorous animals must always be dis
carded because of their fondness for car
rion. Horses, however, are the daintiest
caters of the entire animal kingdom.
There was a time when horses were so
closely associated with man in all work
and progress that simple affection for a
horse rendered the idea of butchering
him repugnant. But now the era of the
horse has passed. The bicycle has re-
placed the saddle horse, the motor wagon
the buggy and stage, and the lack of room
in city life has made a horse as a pet
no longer practicable. That horses will
be exterminated if used for butchers meat
is no more possible than that cattle or
sheep will be. And the future breeds of
horses in America, fostered by the con-
tinuous killing off of all but the strongest
and most beautiful, will be highly i'm
proved.