Lost Horse

In the Jan. 5, 1836 in Rutland, Vermont's newspaper "The Rutland Herald" I stumbled across two notices of where folks had found horses. In the first the gentleman found one stray that came into his property. In the other the poster found three horses that came into his property. Each were asking the owners to identity their horses and pay for the damages that came from these horses entering their properties. I found this interesting because of the request that the owner pay for the damages. We've all heard of the value of a horse and even death by hanging for stealing a horse in some places. But the owner being responsible for damages their livestock has done...well that just gets the creative juices flowing, doesn't it?

Prairie Traveler Livestock

Taken from the Prairie Traveler ©1859
The great error into which inexperienced travelers are liable to fall, and which probably occasions more suffering and disaster than almost any thing else, lies in overworking their cattle at the commencement of the journey. To obviate this, short and easy drives should be made until the teams become habituated to their work, and gradually inured to this particular method of traveling. If animals are overloaded and overworked when they first start out into the prairies, especially if they have recently been taken from grain, they soon fall away, and give out before reaching the end of the journey.

Grass and water are abundant and good upon the eastern portions of all the different overland routes; animals should not, therefore, with proper care, fall away in the least before reaching the mountains, as west of them are long stretches where grass and water are scarce, and it requires the full amount of strength and vigor of animals in good condition to endure the fatigues and hard labor attendant upon the passage of these deserts. Drivers should be closely watched, and never, unless absolutely necessary, permitted to beat their animals, or to force them out of a walk, as this will soon break down the best teams. Those teamsters who make the least use of the whip invariably keep their animals in the best condition. Unless the drivers are checked at the outset, they are very apt to fall into the habit of flogging their teams. It is not only wholly unnecessary but cruel, and should never be tolerated.

In traveling with ox teams in the summer season, great benefit will be derived from making early marches; starting with the dawn, and making a " nooning" during the heat of the day, as oxen suffer much from the heat of the sun in midsummer. These noon halts should, if possible, be so arranged as to be near grass and water, where the animals can improve their time in grazing. When it gets cool they may be hitched to the wagons again, and the journey continued in the afternoon. Sixteen or eighteen miles a day may thus be made without injury to the beasts, and longer drives can never be expedient, unless in order to reach grass or water. When the requisites for encamping can not be found at the desired intervals, it is better for the animals to make a very long drive than to encamp without water or grass. The noon halt in such cases may be made without water, and the evening drive lengthened.

I've included this post today because as writers of historical fiction we're always looking for ways to mess up our characters lives. In other words, conflict. A novel isn't worth reading if your characters don't have conflict. I believe that those of you who are writer's of historical fiction will have a hey day in what possible conflicts can arise from the above paragraphs. Enjoy!

Rules for Selecting a Good Milk Cow

Below is an excerpt from "The Centennial Cook Book and General Guide ©1876

RULES FOR SELECTING* A GOOD MILK-COW.

Her head should be rather long and small; cheeks thin; muzzle fine; nostrils large and flexible ; eyes mild, clear, aud large; neck rather long, and slim near the head ; horns long and small, and of an orange color; small ear, inside of a yellowish tinge; small breast; back level and broad, and straight to the rump; well ribbed ; wide in the loin ; flank low ; thighs thin and deep ; hind legs small, standing well apart; forelegs rather small below the knee, above the knee large; large teats, of a dark orange-color ; bag, when empty, lean, soft, and long ; large milking veins; hair short and thick ; large hind-quarters ; color la-indie, bright red, dun, or a light brown.

The Economic aspects of Horseshoeing

THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF HORSESHOEING.

There is nothing like leather, removes, and bishops.—So say the metropolitan blacksmiths and coachmen, who laugh in their sleeves at the simplicity of horse proprietors, and care not a jot how soon a good piece of horse-flesh is set up on stilts instead of retaining the elasticity and freedom of four sound legs. Horseshoeing is a science and an art. Its science has been neglected, and is foully vilified by those who assert that the connection with the forge is the curse and degradation of the veterinary profession. A good cloak for ignorance this, and the argument appears plausible when we take into consideration the crooked practices which butter the groom's or coachman's bread, and enable the farrier to eke out a miserable pittance. There is probably no branch of skilled labour more inadequately remunerated than that of shoeing horses. To acquire great dexterity in the art calls for many years' toil and practice, and after all, when thoroughly learned, the amount of hard work which the farrier has to go through is probably not equalled by that of any other mechanic. A horse has to be shod, and two men are engaged for a whole hour, and sometimes more, in making, fitting, and applying shoes to feet which are as various in form as men's faces, and which call for great intelligence to avoid mutilation and irretrievable destruction. By fair means this slow and laborious work cannot be made to pay. Five shillings for a set of shoes is a miserable recompense, and in many a country district the charge is two-and-eightpence, three and four shillings. The country smith makes up the deficiency by jobbing, mending or making rails, gates, ploughs, and every other object of which iron forms part. The horseshoeing is done as a necessity and introduction for other work. In large cities veterinarians open up forges, that they may get horses to treat and drug. They acknowledge that the forge does not pay, but they try to scrape odds and ends together even in the forge. Thus there is a prevailing notion that iron is not a good thing when applied directly against the hoof, and if a horse is ' going short,' they propose leather soles. This is a grand institution. In two minutes a piece of leather is cut to the shape of the foot, nailed between the shoe and hoof, and an extra shilling per shoe covers a multitude of sins. In order to make the foot look neat, and to avoid the entire and unsightly leather sole, a portion is often cut to the shape of the shoe and nailed in a similar manner. It is so much the better if this tends to favour the loosening of the shoe and its displacement. The horse must then visit the forge for removes or new sets. London coachmen do not like substantial shoeing. To get the bill heavy enough for a good per centage, there must be removes every fortnight, and a new set of shoes every three weeks. ' It won't do,' say thev, ' to ' keep the shoes on too long.' The feet must be pared out frequently, or the horse has a ' nasty corn,' which requires cutting, and everything is done which favours the destruction rather than the preservation of horses' feet. We have been told that it would not do to put on shoes which a horse can wear a month. Light shoes are best to add weight to the pocket where per centages are going. We have known on more than one occasion that there was an understanding between a blacksmith and coachman, that whether horses were shod every three weeks or not, the sets of shoes were to be marked in the bill with great regularity. The plunder was shared, of course. Another system adopted is that of turning old shoes into new, bypassing them through the fire. They have a red, rusty look, and are well known in the trade as bishops. They are the * cardinals' of the Italian smiths, and the red stockings of prelates doubtless suggested the names at home and abroad. The petty swindles we are anxious to expose, hurt the pockets of owners less directly than indirectly. They necessitate a frequent tampering with horses' feet, and the adoption of a practice in the case of leather soles which cannot, as a rule, be too strongly condemned. Show us a lot of horses with leather soles, and some with bar shoes on their feet, and no other proof is wanting to indicate that the farrier is a bungler, or that, in the case of the leather appendages, there is a quiet understanding between the tradesman and the servant. Veterinary colleges can do much to correct these abuses, as, indeed, they can to protect the owners of horses from the extravagant charges made by some practitioners. In illustration of this a case may be mentioned. A gentleman owning a mare worth under 50l, had occasion to send her to a veterinary infirmary. She remained there six weeks, and was sent home cured, with a bill amounting to 27l, This is a common case ; and the best safeguard against such a process of extortion, is to subscribe two guineas to a veterinary college, and get medical advice and treatment for animals without charge, except for keep. John Gamgee.

Albert Veterinary (.'olleyr, Bnyswatcr,
Dreembtr, 1865.

This comes from: Baily's magazine of sports and pastimes, Volume 36 ©1866

Swine

From the Student's Reference Handbook by Charles Belden Beach © 1893

Swine are among the most important of food animals. For the wild boars from which swine are probably descended, see Boar. The word boar is now used of the male hog ; the female is termed sow—the young are called pigs, and when half-grown, shoats. A sow has two litters a year of from eight to twelve pigs each, or even more ; and it has been caculated that in ten generations the descendants of a single sow would number over 6,000,000. Pork is held to be unwholesome in warm countries, and the ancient Egyptians, as also the Jews and Mohammedans, did not use it. The wild hog is a clean animal, and the tame hog's bad habits are largely due to the way in which it is kept.

The Neapolitan hog is the finest of the Italian breeds; it is black, with a short snout, and upright ears. The Berkshire English swine are both black and white, and make fine bacon and hams. One of the most valuable of English breeds is the Essex, a black hog, which is easily fattened, and at 12 to 18 months furnishes from 250 to 400 pounds of dressed meat. Suffolk swine, though small, put on a large amount of fat for the food they eat. Chinese swine are easily fattened, but are chiefly used to cross with English breeds. Pork-

Eacking is one of the great branches of usiness in the United States. Its leading centers are Chicago, Cincinnati and Kansas City, in the order named. In 1890 the packing establishments put on the market 3,04'/,651,000 pounds of hog product, not counting hogs killed by farmers for their own use, or sold by them in towns and cities. This output was nearly three times that of 1873.