Identifier: scribnersmagazin16newy (find matches)
Title: Scribner's magazine
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects:
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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r and training of its fightingmen, but in the supply of horses thatits fields may afford. In this connectionit is instructive to compare the militarystrength of a country like China, wherethe horse is not a common elementin the life of people, with that of anyof the western folk who may hereafterhave to wrestle with that populous em-pire. Some writers, in their efforts toforecast the large politics of the future,have imagined that when the hardy andobedient Chinaman came to receive theEuropean training in the military art,the armies of that country might provefrom their numbers a menace to ourown civilization. Such an issue seemsin a high degree improbable, for thereason that the eastern realm could notprovide the horses which would be nec-essary for the use of invading armies ;nor is it at all likely that the rigidframework of their society ^vill ever beso altered as to provide an abundanceof these animals. Although in the first instance thehorse served mainly, if not altogether, 575
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Belgian Fisherman s Horse. as an ally of man in his contests with hisneighbors, its most substantial use hasbeen in the peaceful arts. As pack ani-mal and drawer of the plough, the oxappears in general to have come intouse before its swifter companion. Thedisplacement of horned cattle has beendue to the fact that their stiTictureand habits make them much less titfor arduous and long-continued laborthan the horse has been found to be.The cloven foot, because of its division,is weak. It cannot sustain a lieavvburden. Even A^-ith the unincumberedweight of the body of the aninial, thefeet are apt to become sore in marcheswhich the heavily mounted horses en-dure unharmed. Centuries of experi-ence have shown that while the ox is anexcellent animal for drawing a plou<ihin a stubborn soil, and is well adaptedto pulling carriages where the burdenis heavy and the speed is not a matterof importance and the distance notgreat, the creature is too slow for tliegreater part of the work which thef

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