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On Their Sea Legs.

Cattle and Horses Do Not Get Frightened in Rough Weather.

     Do the horses and cattle get frightened and make much disturbance in rough weather? asked the writer of a New York dealer who ships cattle abroad.

     “Bless you, no; They’ve got sea legs that would put an old salt to shame. Occasionally a horse will lose his ballance, but a bullock is the greatest balancer you ever saw. They are knowing brutes too. You know, we put them four in a pen. Well, you’ll never find all four standing up or lying down at one time. They figure the thing out and decide how they’ll get the most room and most comfort. So two of them stand up while two lie down. When they get tired, they shift the watch.

     “The horses like to be talked to when there’s a rough sea and things are pretty lively. They always like certain men better than others. So do the cattle. We have one man who can do anything with them. Every bullock and horse on the boat knows him by the time we’ve been out two days. He comes in handy when there’s an accident.

     “It’s mighty seldom that a serious accident happens nowadays, but once in awhile a horse or a bullock does get thrown and breaks a leg or does some bad damage. We don’t carry a veterinary. The men know as much about ordinary cattle and horse ailments as any vet, and if one of the brutes breaks his leg there’s nothing for it but to kill him. A veterinary couldn’t do anything for him.

     “The company charges from $6 to $20 a head for carrying cattle and from $27 to $250 a head for horses. When the government inspectors stopped overcrowding, they cut down the carrying capacity of some boats 75 head. That made a pretty big hole in the ship’s profits in the course of a year.”-Exchange.

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