Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-11-20
THE ORIGIN OF THE HORSE
The Remote Forefather of This
Useful Animal Was Vastly
Different Creature
BY SOPHIE B. T1TTER1NGToN.


Wyoming is a wonderland of the
past, rich in fossil remains. -
A few years ago there was found in
the Wyoming fossil beds the remains
of a little creature which scientists
claim is the original equine. Its front
feet show four distinct toes, the hind
feet three.
Now little plaster. animal repre-
senting the probable appearance of the
"protolippus, as it is called, stands
in the New York museum in the same
alcove with the cast of Percheron
draft horse. The entire little body
and tiny pointed head do not equal in
bulk the big head of the great Per-
scheron.
This little horse of the eocene period
measured twelve inches at the 'st.oul-
der. AS time passed on it increased
to fourteen inches.
Incalculable ages passed, and his de-
scendants of the miocene period stood
eighteen inches high and had three
toes on each foot.
Ages later he grew taller still, and
his feet grew harder, having yet three
toes. At this period he measured al
most ten hands at the withers and his
head and neck had grown long. There
were now several branches of his fam
lily, and one of them, the "hypohippus."
must have looked much like Vir-
ginia deer.
The time passed on. Where the four
toed horse had found the foliage and
vegetable food within easy reach of
his tiny head and where he had spread
ing feet, needed to support him on the
soft soil of tropical forests, his de-
scendants of the next million years
had to experience great physical
changes to adapt them to their changed
surroundings.
Age by age the spongy, forest-set
lowlands were elevated higher and
higher above sea level, and as the alti-
tude increased there was less moisture
and with dryer conditions and cooler
air the rank forest vegetation grad
ually gave place to grasses.
AS trees grew less and the grass
range increased the descendant of the
little protophippus changed also.
The feet grew harder to meet the
firmer soil, the legs grew longer and
the heels higher to allow him to swing
over greater distances and the neck
extended to allow him to browse on the
grasses at his feet. The teeth also
changed to suit the new food.
He had wide, noble feeding range
on the luxuriant grasses before the
ice age came to change everything
His trail is found from Escholtz bay
on the north to Patagonia on the south
1t is a far cry from the little four
toed, dog-like creature of the eocene
period to the horse, the ass and the
zebra of to-day, the only animals that
walk on one toe. Species by species
they fiourished and became extinct as
a class, leaving to their posterity the
task of changing themselves to meet
the needs of a changing earth.
IT is believed that these American
horses are the original ancestors of all
the various extinct members of the
horse family in the world, but this
cannot be definitely established until
certain fossil deposits in central Asia
shall have been thoroughly explored.
TIL, Maryland experiment station
has shown by repeated experiments
that fresh manure spread in WHITE,
did not give as much increase as the
same amount rotted and plowef
down in the spring. Turning tht
manure while rotting was better thar
leaving it without being turned. Com.
mercial fertilizers plowed under il
the spring invariably gave larger yield.
than when sowed on the surface iust