The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-30

One dog alone generally has strength enough to draw a mlilkman's cart and sixty gallons of milk over a long route in rolling country.
 The average working life of these faithful animals Is ten years. They reach their full strength at three years, and from then until they are nine years old should be at their best. With good care and sufficient food most dogs are capable of service even, until; fifteen years old, and many trot their daily round with cheerful alacrity although bearing the weight of twenty years. It Is the frequency of accidents, insuffi- cient food and overlooking that reduce the average of life. The dog takes to his work, after few days perfunctory training, very readily, rarely under or dinary circumstances having to be urged to greater exertion. Indeed, if l spoken to at all, it Is to restrain him from drawing the cart faster than the driver cares to walk. The preparation of the wagon for a trip affects the [ trained dog much as the sight of a gun or shooting costume does setter or foxhound and when harnessed he trots to his place under the wagon with his tail wagging. If employed on 0 milk route or in like service, he soon learns the way, the places and the duration of each stop as well as his master, in whose absence he guards the wagon with a fidelity which no wheeling can corrupt or fatigue impair.
 Notwithstanding that the dogs have been used for clearly defined pur- pose through long period of years, no systematic continued effort has been made to develop, by judicious selection, a breed that should combine the physi- cal characteristics, such as breadth of breast and strength of. flank, most need ed for the work. The strongest dog for l the least money and for immediate ser vice has been the demand, and conse- l quently the, breed has been left to take care of itself.
 '"The breed?" said a dog-dealer. "Oh, mon Dieu, can't tell you much about the breed; the breed makes no differ ence. What you want is strong, we'll trained dog, and that's what mine are. However, I may tell you that my dogs are all from the same father and lnoth- CT. The father, if remember correctly, '~SSNh- ish and three-fourths Scotch; the mother is, I think, three-fourths Bel gian and one-fourth English. But the 1 breed-bah!" z ,ET
 Attention to breeding is not entirely lacking, however, as experiments are being made to produce a large, strong dog by crossing mastiffs, Danish hounds, St. Bernards, collies, setters and Newfoundlands. A suggestion has also been made that the crossing of the Belgian dog with the Ulm or Great Dane would result in a materially bet ter breed. The Belgian dog, the out come of a haphazard intermingling of many strains, makes the best draught dog. He is strong, con1pactly formed standing from twenty to thirty inches high, and his hair is smooth and short usually of tan or dark brown color His tail and ears are cut short, the former because of the superstition that a grown tail "absorbs the strength which would otherwise enter into ithe spinal column and haunches," and the latter for aesthetic reasons. j ls
 Stringent police regulations agains the abuse of dogs~are consistently en forced, and have So ameliorated theil conditions that the French proverb, q would not be a dog in Belgium" has lost its point. These regulations were originally an answer to popular de- mand, but they have been maintained and strengthened by an evident need They are the same in intent in all dis tricts, the use of the lash being ofter forbidden, and rules for the treatment of the animals in hot and cold weather being generally inserted.
 In Berlin the regulations require that proper drinking vessel, filled witt water, shall be kept on the wagon fol the dogs use," and that from Octobei until April, inclusive, there shall bt fkept for each dog mat to lie Oh ant cover to spread over him during halts." In many districts the driver is not permitted to ride; in others an an
 nual inspection of dogs by the chic veterinary official of the district is pro vded for. Attractions of the regula tions are punished generally by fine forfeiture of license or Imprisonment the penalty being commensurate witl the offence. In this way the severity o their lot and the hardships of tn, draught dogs are distinctly mitigatet even where their masters are indisposet to show any gratitude for the service , rendered. ed.--Washingto Correspondence of the New York Post.