Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1889 — A HORSE DISEASE DECREASING. [ARTICLE]

A HORSE DISEASE DECREASING.

Fewer Animal* With HeaTes Nowadays than There Used to BA / Middletown, N. Y. special. “Have you noticed how few horses qjttTied a well known Orange conntr breeder, of a circle gathered round. “Formerly every stable of five had one or more suffering from the disease; now it israre to meet a j heaving horse; in fact X haven’t seen five in a year past.’’ “Hqw do you account for the change?” was asVed. “In two ways. Heaves is a disease of the -respiratory organs, sometimes inherited, sometimes brought on by feeding dusty and mouldy hay or grain. Owners are growing more careful in giving only clean and wholesome feeds. Whea l was a boy it was a common thing for a farmer to tie a colt, no matter Low promising, alongside a mow of rusty, musty hay, and let him feed himself there for weeks together. It is no wonder that the colt contracted the heaves under such circumstances. Then, again, breeders are growing more careful in selecting sires and dams that are free from inheritable diseases or defects. No intelligent breeder will undertake to raise a colt from heavy stock.

“Crib biters are also getting scarcer. Cribbing is another inheritable disease or vicious trick that breeders have learned to shun. Some of yon remember a Btallion once kept by Silas Corwin of this town. I’ve forgotten his name, but he was a son of G*lderoy. That Staition had the cribbing trick, and most of his colts inherited it. lam inclined to think, too, that the cribbing ailment is contagious. I had a valuable mare once which got it, and was ruined, simply by standing for an hour or so alongside of a cribbing horse in a stable. “My observation is that the horses raised in this region nowadays are not only of better blood and breed, but are freer from diseases and defects than horses were formerly. Much of this improvement is dne to more careful and intelligent breeding; something is also due to the superior knowledge of veterinary surgeons.