these creatures give to man. Even fifty
years ago the horse was far more necessary to the work of our kind than
it is at present. Going back a hundred years, we perceive that the
population of the civilized world could not possibly have been
maintained, if by some disease all the horses had been swept away. Such
a calamity in the year 1800 would have led to the depopulation of almost
all the cities of the interior country, famine would have ravaged our
States, and the whole economic system of society would have had to be
reconstructed. Now the greater part of the work which of old had to be
done by horses, can, at a slight increase of cost, be effected by
mechanical engines. Ploughing, except on steep hillsides and in very
stony ground, can be cheaply and effectively done by steam. The same
agent can propel the harvesters and work the threshing machines. Even
farmers who till fields of no great extent find it desirable to do much
of their work by steam-engines, for the reason that fuel is less costly
than horse feed. An interesting instance to show how far mechanical
inventions have taken the place of horsed wagons in the work of
civilized communities was afforded by the horse distemper which swept
over the country in 1872. During the week or more in which this epidemic
was at the worst, the State of Massachusetts was practically unhorsed,
yet the greater part of the necessary business, that required to bring
provisions to the town, was effected by means of the railways. The same
incident shows, however, in another way, how absolutely necessary this
animal is, in certain parts of our work. For the great Boston fire,
which occurred at that time, was doubtless due to the fact that, owing
to the sickness of the horses, an effort was made to drag the engines by
hand-power, with the result that they came upon the ground so slowly as
to give the fire a chance to become an uncontrollable conflagration.

In the present state of our arts there is one great occupation which we
cannot conceive to be carried on without the services of horses. This is
war. It is hardly too much to say that all our highly elaborated
military system has depended for its development, as it does for its
maintenance, on the transportation value of horses. Much has been said
of late as to the use of bicycles as adjuncts to armies, and in a
certain limited way they will doubtless prove serviceable in future
campaigns; but no one who has had any experience