Page 8 Advertisements Column 1

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 20, Issue 70, 3 September 1909, Page 8

RACE HORSES AT SEA Precaution* Are Taken in Shipping Thoroughbreds Across Ocean. Stall! Padded and Floor* Covert* with Peat Moss—A Claaa Bill ol Health Jleaeasarr <«» Each Horaa. Few persons have an idea of the de* tails attendant upon the shipping of a thoroughbred from this country to England on one of the Atlantic Transport line steamers which handle most of this line of business. A thoroughbtrd is not handled like a dray horse. The race is as much entitled to comfort and consideration as a first-class cahin passenger. His owner is solicitous as to his welfare and is willing. to pay well for it. The slightest jolt due to the rolling of the ship in a heavy sea might disable a thoroughbred so that his trip to the other side would all be in vain, therefore the greatest care must be taken that the quarters on board ship are provided with precautions against such accidents, says the New York Sun. The railroad* have gradually met the demand for the traffic race horses and now run whole train* of specially constructed horse cars for the accommodation of thoroughbreds. According to the lawa of the United States a horse brought over a.railroad to a seaport town preparatory to an ocean voyage must have 18 hours of rest in a stable after leaving the can before he is led up to the gang plank to his stall on shipboard. The New York Central road has a specially constructed stable for this purpose at Thirty-sixth street and the North river, and other trunk lines are making preparations to provide similar quarters. Theee stables and the quarters for the horses aboard ship are under the direct jurisdiction of the United States bureau of animal industry of which tbe chief executive for the port of New York is Dr. William H. Rose. The inspectors employed by this bureau have many duties to perform among them close scrutiny of each ship before horses are allowed to gc aboard. According to the requirements of the law, each stall must be eight feet in length and two feet sis inches in width. These are the accommodations for. ordinary horses, but the box stalls for thoroughbreds are generally ten by eight feet, with the walls and roof thickly padded. The floor of one of these stalls is covered with six inches of peat moss, over which at night a heavy mattress of straw; is thrown so that the racehorse can enjoy a comfortable sleep. Hut the same mattress is not used twe night* in succession, for the law says that the racehorse must have a clean bed every night. The inspectors disinfect everything before a ship sails, including stalls, blankets, feed troughs, water pails, pitchforks and currycombs. A horse cannot go aboard until he has received a clean bill of health from a veterinary surgeon who represents the bureau, while the attendants who sail with the animals must make affidavit that they are all practical horsemen. Uncle Sam also sees to it that the horses, whether they are poor beasts of burden or rich racers, receive proper rations. They get all the hay they want, the thoroughbreds receiving extras in the shape of bran mash mixed with oats, flaxseed meal and oatmeal, with corn in cold weather. Some of the box stalls are built on the main deck with powerful fans to produce ventilation. The old plan of "slinging” a horse aboard a steamer has been done away with, big gangplanks having been substituted, A thousand horses can now walk aboard in the same time it used to take to get an animal onto the deck by means of a sling. When one of the Atlantic Transport liners lands a load of horses on the other side they are put into the company’s stables on the dock and cannot leave nntil more veterinaries have gotten in tlieir work. Horses shipped to this country must pass through what is known as "horse quarantine’’ under the watchful eye of a veterinary attached to the department of agriculture. So much care is exercised, that it is estimated that not more than one horse in a hundred dies from the effects of an ocean voyage. The attendants on these “horse ships” say that they have never seen a thoroughbred suffer frqm seasickness. The Man ament Was a Misfit. A stately granite shaft had been eretfted in the cemetery of a Massachusetts town in memory of a man whose life had been anything hut praiseworthy. None the less the monument was one of the sights to be shown to a stranger, and one day a former resident of the town who had been away for many years returned and was taken to se> il e granite obelisk. He was no stranger to the faults and failings of the man whom it eulogized with its gilded inscription, and after silent contemplation of the shaft on all sides he said; "Well, if it’s for goodness it’s too lag, and if it's for badness it’s not big enough.” -New Haven Chronicle. Eskimo* Have \o Religtfon. Mr. .Han Huy. the recently returned Arctic explorer who has been studying the Eskimos, says they have no religion—not even a belief in a supreme being.—N. Y, Sun. Our Trade with England. England buys from the United States in a year more thamSlOO,ooo,f,oo worth of wheat am! flour, meats to the same amount and fiIMJOO.OOO bushel* Of corn.—lndianapolis News.