MAN ON THE LAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 58, 1 November 1912, Page 6

MAN ON THE LAND.

THE HORSE. Mr A. R. Young, supervisor of the Government Veterinary Department, gave an interesting address on the horse at Masterton last week. Motor Gar Supplanting The Horse. Mr Young said that to-day the motor car was knocking the horse out, with, perhaps, the exception of the draught horse. When purchasing a hofse a farmer should see that the animal is of the stamp that ho requires. The expression of the face was an important thing in liorses, and farmers should study this point when buying a horse. An animal should have good, sharp, alert cars, good forehead, good body and action. All horses with any pretension to quality possess length and straightness from the hip to the tail. Length from hip to hock is the criterion both of speed and pow • er. All horses should be well let down in the quarters, affording increase of strength and volume in the muscles, power, and speed accruing. Tfio cannon should not be too fine. Iho haunch bone should be strong and long, and the thigh bone strong and of average length. /A good stifle is high up, abutting the flank. This is the concentration of power in all classes, and is a certain sign that the haunch hone is well sloped forward, and that the' thigh hone is well carried back. .Weak, ill-defined knees should be avoided, while good feet and pasterns

are necessary. Burning For Lampas Condemned. Mr Young spoke strongly against turning out lampas. Lampas is an active inflammation of the ridges or fleshy bars in the roof of the mouth, the bars swelling so much that sometimes they project below the level of the nippers, and they are so tender that all hard and dry food is refused. The proper treatment is to scarify the gums with a pocket knife. If a handkerchief were wrapped round the knife, leaving only the point of the blade free, there would be no chance of the knife closing on the user’s hands while the horse’s tongue should be pulled out at the side of the mouth, and this would prevent the horse closing his mouth on the operator’s hand. If a horse had lampas there’was no need for farmer to go to a veterinary surgeon, because the operation was a simple one, and could be performed by a farmer himself. Scouring was caused in U) great measure through bad teeth. The point of the shoulder was generally the scat of lameness in the horse. Side Bonus. Side bones was a change to a bony substance fairing place in the lateral cartilages of the fore feet, being usually found in draught horses. Lameness is not invariably present, but the action of the horse is stiff. The feet are contracted, altered in form, flat or convex in the sole and weak in the heels. The presence of side bones may be detected by pressing upon the cartilages. When in health these arc yielding and elastic; when there is a ■side bone they are hard, enlarged,'and unyielding. Ring Bone and Sand Crack. Ring bones are deposits of bony matter above and below the coronet. Lameness may not be present, although when inflammation is active it may be extreme. A sand crack is a fissure in the wall of the hoof, beginning at the coronet, and usually found in the inner quarters, of the fore and the toes of the hind feet. Sand and dirt work into the sensitive parts, give severe pain, and cause marked lameness. Sand cracks are hereditary, and are a terrible nuisance to the horseowner. - It was important, from a health point of view, that a farmer should know how often a horse breathed in a minute, so that colds, etc., could be detected. It was also necessary to feel the pulse arid to know how many times it beats to the minute. It is usually examined in the horse i on the cord jvhich runs across the hone of the lower jaw, just in front of the curved portion, or inside the elbow. In drought horses the stifle joint caused a lot of trouble. When dislocation took place a rope should he put round the horse’s neck, passed down between the fore-legs, around the hind hoof and the leg drawn up. The joint would then go into place again; if not at once, then a little pressure of the hand would complete the work.

Bone and Bog Spavin, Bone spa vin is a bony growth on the inner and lower side of the hock, arising from inflammation of the adjacent bones, and very often creating a permanent unsoundness. Bog spavin is the result of inflammation of the structures of the hock joint. It was a debaiteable point whether the hog spavin was hereditary. Personally he believed it was.

Strlrtgent Regulations For Strangles. He advocated the Government making stringent regulations in regard to strangles. It should be made unlawful for a man to knowingly take a horse Buffering from strangles into a public ptace, or to allow it to drink from a piiiblic watering-trough. Once strangles was introduced on to a farm, the owner never knew when he was going to get rid of the disease.