The Farmer's Horse.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 65, 30 August 1884, Page 5

The Farmer's Horse.

The ideal farmer's horse is a horso of good constitution and endurance, of good disposition, a fast walker and a good roadster, and that is the all-purpose horse. Such a horee can bo had. It a good driver, the animal will most likely bo raoro serviceable in tho work on the farm. A wretchedly poor roadster is generally poor everywhere. He is a mope at best. But a horse that is active and strong on the road will be a good horso, according to the present standard, on the farm, if he is of sufficient size. In the matter of size opinions will differ, and it is nofc material whether the animal is large or small— if not too small— if it has the aggregation of merits which we have briefly stated. As to endurance, it is a quality usually confined in its application to road or trotting horses ; but there is no placo in this world in which a horso is ever put that ho needs more endurance than he does on tho farm, It is true that if he lacks that tho defect may not be as particularly noticeable while ho is at work as it would be in the case of a horse on the race-track or on the road He may do all the work that is expected of him ; but farm work is hard work, and if the horso lacks ondurance, which is the result of a strong constitution, he is rapidly wearing out, and his period of usefulness ends much sooner than it should. A good disposition, also, is of paramount importance, not only for the good of tho horse himself, but for the safety of those about him. A bad-dispositioned horse is always a source of danger, and if he does no damage during his life, those who handle him aro in exceptional luck.— 2 Vic Western Rural.

While the rich corded silks known by the name of Eaille or Poulte do Soic are again appearing upon the mercers' counters, one would hardly recognise them with the silks bearing that name a decade ago. The cord is quite as pronounced, but the hard-feeling substance then considered to be the height of perfection in a plain silk has given placo to a soft and brilliant fabric, which adapts itself to draping just as well as the softer materials that have lately been employed for that purpose,