ENGLISH DRAFT HORSE. The old Black Cart Horse of England, was one of the distinc tive breeds of English horses, from an early period. They are hardly knqwn in the United States as a distinctive breed, although they have undoubtedly exercised more or less influence on the ordinary work horses of our country. In England they are divided into three sub-families; first, the heavy massive horse, reared in the rich marshes and plains of the midland counties expressly for the London brewers; second, the smaller-sized but still tolerably heavy horse, generally employed for agricultural purposes, a strong, compact animal, but slow in action; and third, a lighter and more active animal, possessing either some admixture of blood of a .smaller breed, or being the descendant of the Flanders discarded coach horse. The prevailing color among these animals is black, but the large dray horse is by no means confined to those of a black color. There are many of a bay, and still more of a brown color, as well as numerous greys and roans. There are also very many excellent compact cart horses of these various colors, better adapted for agricultural purposes; and, indeed, there are those which are generally preferred to the black horse as possessing greater actiVity and cleaner limbs, combined with equal compactness and strength. The dray horse -was originally reared in the greatest perfection in the richest pastures of the fens of Lincolnshire, the largest being seldom than seventeen hands high, when two and a half years old, at which age they are usually sold. The purchasers work them moderately until they are four years old, feeding, them well during this period, at which age they are sold to those heavy teaming•firms who aspire to elephantine horses. The inodern English draft horse, however, is as much dif ferent from those of one hundred years ago as the modern thoroughbred is superior to his .ancestors of two liundred years ago. The last fifty y-ears has marked an era, in the breeding of draft animals, as has the last one hundred years in the breeding of thoroughbreds. So that in the draft horse, good feet and legs are of the utmost importance; the shoulders should be oblique, in order that the animal may have free and safe action. The stallion, should have a well-arched chest, long, lean head, and clear, prominent eye; added to this, there must be great bone, supported by strong sinews with plenty of muscle, and the a,nimal should be so good a feeder that it will carry plenty of weight to assist all this. One of the improved English draft horses, is shown on page 303. In speaking of the English cart horse of sixty years ago, of which the modern English draft horse is an improvement, the English Cart-horse Stud Book, says: With very few exceptions (and those excep tions chestnut), black, dark brown, and grey are the only colors met with in descriptions of draft .stallions living in the first quarter of the present century. To account for this limitation two reasons may be advanced: First, fashion in color may have been considered a very important -element in the selection of a sire. Second, the light browns, bays, chestnuts, and roans, of the present day are probably due to extensive infusions of light horse blood. Whichever of the two reasons is accepted as the correct one, inquiry among old horsemen leaves no room for doubt that black, brown and grey were by far the most common colors of draft horses. Grey horses appear to have been more common in counties .south of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, but it is ,probable that the coats of many of the so-called black horses had interspersed therein a consider able sPrinkling of white hairs, and that they were occasionally described as greys; there is one instance, about forty years ago, of an Oxford shire horse being sometimes described as a black, and at another period as a grey. The head was
large in all its dimensions, well placed on the neck by strong, broad, and deep attachment; the forehead and face wide, expressive, and intelli gent ; a side view of the jaws and muzzle repre sented those parts to be remarkable for depth; the ears were small and carried slightly outwards, the eyes somewhat small, not prominent, but generally mild and moderately intelligent in expression; the nostrils and mouth large, firm. and well closed; the neck was long, arched, and remarkable for its depth, and for the strength of its insertion between the shoulder blades, not as it is now frequently seen, badly placed, by hav ing the appearance of being fused, as it were, upon the front edge of the blade bones, a con formation affording insufficient room for the collar, and therefore one most defective for the purposes of heavy draft. The shoulders were massive, muscular, upright, low, and thick at the withers, thrown well outwards beyond the inser tion of the neck by the front ribs being properly arched. The fore-arm was long, strong, and muscular, the knee broad and flat on all its aspects; the fore and hind cannons short and thick, frequently measuring upward of twelve inches in circumference, covered with coarse skin, and having a beefy appearance and touch, more marked in advanced age than in youth. The pastern bones of the fore leg were very short, strong, and upright, those of the hind leg being much more obliquely placed. The feet, as a rule, especially the fore ones, were large, flat, weak at the heels, and invested with horn of somewhat soft and spongy texture. Thighs nar row, being insufficiently clothed with muscle on their inner aspects to prevent the appearance of what is vulgarly but characteristically termed Split up. The hocks were of rather defective formation, but showing little predisposition to disease, generally too short, too round, and not sharply defined; for these reasons it may be inferred that the hind action was limited and comparatively wanting in elasticity. The gen eral contour of the hind legs was considerably bent, the hocks being thrown backward, and the feet forward. The breast wide and full of mus cle, indicative of great strength rather than quick movement ; the back longer, narrower, and dip ping rather too much behind the withers. The heart-ribs were well arched, but not very deep; the hinder ones were also rounded, but short, the last one placed too far forward, giving the body an appearance of undue length and light ness. The croup bent at a considerable angle, denoting what would now be considered want of quality. The dock strong and thick, with pow erful broad attachment to the trunk. The tout ensemble of the stallion exhibited grand develop ment of the forehand, which rendered the appearance of the hind parts very mean by com parison; a conformation, however, that a mo ment's reflection will show to be in perfect accord with natural ordination; from mankind downwards, in the scale of mammalian creation, the entire male is deficient in that development of the posterior parts so notable in the perfect female of each species, and for apparent reasons. The growth of hair upon these. old stallions was remarkably luxuriant, that of the mane and tail being abundant, strong in texture, glossy, and very often several feet in length. The cannons, fetlocks, and coronets, both fore and hind, were garnished with a profusion of coarse, long hair, distinctive of the Cart-horse breed. The silky growth in corresponding situations of the present day- has probably become thus modified from the admixture of extrinsic blood, from local influ ences, from altered methods in the system of rearing and managing young stock, or from a combination of two or all of those causes.