The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1916-03-31

horse, and SO far their purchases nave
not been numerous. The Italians Duy
smaller type, and many horses not
suitable in height and weight for the
British and French requirements ind
their way to Italy.
The French are very systematic In
their purchases of horses. AS each
icommission accepts horses in the west,
report is mailed daily, giving the
number of horses taken, together with
| the sex and color, as we'll as the hoof
brand. which shows the class to which
the horse belongs, as, for instance,
&c" meaning cavalry, "A" artillery
and "AA" heavy artillery, as the case
may be, the letter being followed by
set of figures representing the date
inspected On the right hip of every
horse is branded letters indicating the
contractors name and the name OF
the inspector-for instance, IN. W"
which would indicate the horse was
from the Mayer & Carpenter contract,
and was inspected and passed at East
st. Louis by Veterinary Violette.
The French buy all their horses
delivered at a French port, entailing
upon the contractor the expense, care
and transportation Of the animal from
date of acceptance until landed from
the ship in France. After the horses
are accepted and branded in the west,
they are shipped east In trainload lots
Of twenty, thirty, forty and fifty cars,
usually twenty horses to the car. The
trains are stopped in transit, the
horses unloaded, fed, watered and
rested, usually for Ave hours, when
they are again reloaded into the cars
and moved to the embarking ports,
which are Montreal, Quebec, st. John
and Halifax, Canada-Portland, BOs-
ton, New York, Jersey City, Yonkers
Newport News, Norfolk and Calves.
ton In the United States. After the
horses are received in the eastern
stations, they are unloaded, fed, rested
and held until the ship is ready for
loading. Upon the appointed day for
loading, a French embarking officer
and one or more veterinarians inspect
each horse critically as he is passed
up for the ship. A veterinary for the
insurance company is also present and
inspects each horse, the brand and
hoof numbers also being taken record
of, and, if any horse is found to be
thin or ailing in any way, he is re-
jected and passed back for attention
or to await the next ship. Thus a
complete record is kept of each horse.
The horses are led separately on to
the ship by an attendant. Each is led
up the brow or gangway, then through
the aisle on the ship to his allotted
STALL where a ship carpenter puts
him away" or, in other words, places
him in his stall and puts up the stall
boards, and a galvanized feed trough
is placed before each horse, who is |
then fed hay, and watered.
All horses are haltered usually with
grass rope halters, which are the
strongest, although the British use
strong leather halters exclusively.
Loading horses into the ship is a
tedious and exacting business, and
lasts from four to fourteen hours, &C
cording to the number taken aboard
The largest and most successful
contractors are Mayer G. Carpenter, of
New York, and their ships are also
The largest carrying horses. The Vir-
yinian, of their line, holds the worlds
record, having, on October ~, 1915,
cleared from Quebec with 1000 head
If horses aboard. Previous to this
The Carpathia, famous as the rescuer
If the Titanic survivors, held the rec
,rd of 1901 horses from Yonkers on
August 9Th. The Papnonia, another
If Mayer & Carpenters ships, had
previously held the record, having
aiken 1888 horses from New York
asst April. The other large ships of
his line are the Missourian, Kansan,
Jltonia, Luceric, Great City, Eastern
Jty, Dakotan, Honolulan, Floridian,
burmese Prince, Milwaukee, Montfort,
font Royal, Monmouth and British
Aonarch.
So far / have personally handled
bout sixty thousand of these war
Iorses, and have had an opportunity {
o carefully look them over as to type ,
nd quality. Most of the horses come
rom Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois,
Nebraska, Colorado, Montana,
oregon, Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky
nd Tennessee, although many are
ecured in the east, and in Ohib, Penn
ylvania, Virginia and New Jersey.