Arizona republican., 1911-05-05

fort To develop the perfect animal for
their special uses.
one of the leading animal import
ers, breeders and trainers of Europe
wrote in a letter not long ago:
An interesting experiment was re
Gently made by Professor Ewart of
Edinburg-the crossing of Il male
Chapman zebra with different breeds
of horses, from a Shetland pony up to
a heavy cart horse. l have bought from
Professor Ewart two zebra horses, the
one foaled by an American trottinS
mare, the other by a small English cart
horse. Judging by results up to date,
which have been more than satisfac-
tory. these experiments Will lead, |
think. To a revolution in breeding
mules. for the zebra crossed with
horses gives better results than breed
ing mules from jacks.
THE zebra is an animal with more
life and possesses greater endurance.
Formerly it was very difficult to get
the zebras from which to breed, but
they are now caught for me in any
number They are worth about $3.50
apiece, delivered in New York
Zebras have been plentiful in the ami
NAL markets of the world only for the
last four or five years. since the dis
covery Of astonishing herds of them
on the plains that lie south Of Albert
MyanZa and Albert Edward NyanZa.
and on the plateaus between the great
lakes generally. 1t is said that they
may be seen there feeding like ponies
in a field and that they nave almost
no fear of man, as many of the tribes
inhabiting the district are only vege-
table feeders and do not even dig pit
falls for the Astounding game.
1t was this abundance Of natural
wild horse in the district which
prompted Mr.. r Stordy. NJ. r. c. V. :.
to forward to the British foreign office
a detailed recommendation now on file
there suggesting the domestication Of
the animales for draught purposes.
The first need is that some hardy
animal larger than a donkey be found
The constitution of all Zebras is as
tOnishingly robust. They are naturally
dwellers upon high plains and dry
mountains. and though their natural
habitat is in the fly-haunted veldt Of
eastern Central Africa. in temperate
the winter without suffering the slight
est harm. Professor Ewart's zebra by
birds were more hardy than ponies and
thrived under exposure the year round
i'm the Pentland hills of England.
Neither the idea nor the fact of tam
ing zebras is new, but it is only of re-
cent years that systematic efforts
toward the scientific breeding of the
most perfect type of zebra hybrids have
been made. In the middle of the last
century half broken zebras were some
times seen for sale in cape Town, with
a rider mounted To show that they were
ridable 1t is said that they were eX-
ported to Mauritus for draught pur
poses.
The experiment has been tried with
complete success in England. Mr.. Wal
ter Rothschilds team. three zebras and
a pony, was fairly well broken, though
perhaps the animals were not all that
could be desired in the stable. Barnum
had a team of four zebra mares that
were as quiet as 50 many sheep. The
writer has seen them when waiting for
their turn in the performance, where
they drew a car. They were in pairs,
ready harnessed in their stalls. All
four were standing quietly with no one
near them. not fidgeting in their har-
ness nor paving the ground as some
of the ponies were.