PE ax ePRODUC ON

—Ok—

THE HORSE AND THE MULE.

—_—

A NEW DISCOVERY:

EMBRACING THE CAUSES OF FAILURES, ON THE PART OF
MARES, TO GET WITH FOAL,.AND THE MEANS BY
WHICH SUCH FAILURES MAY BE AVOIDED.
—AND—

GIVING DIRECTIONS BY WHICH FOALS MAY BE SECURED
ha _ IN THE MAJORITY OF CASES, BY THE FIRST

ae | LEAP OF THE STALLION OR JACK.

—DESIGNED—
For the Benefit of all Persons Engaged in the Rearing
of Horses and Mules.

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GUSTAVUS H. COLEMAN

NATURALIST AND FARMER.

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Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1881, by
Gustavus H. CoLEMAN, in the office of the
Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

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PREFACE.

Every person who has any experience in the reproduction
and rearing of horses and mules will attest the fact that, of
every one hundred mares annually bred, about thirty or
forty fail to get with foal. It is also a well known fact
that the large majority of mares annually bred are brought
in connection repeatedly with the stallion or the jack, when
only one connection is necessary in order to secure a foal, if
in accordance with the secret liws of animal reproduction.
These losses and disadvantages are the result of ignorance
and consequent lack of conformity to the secret laws of an-
imal reproduction. But very few, if any, of the many per-
sons engaged in this branch of business know that the
mare is more apt to conceive upon any one day of the sex-
ual heat than she is upon other days. Yet such is the fact,
There are certain days during the heat of the mare when
she will almost invariably conceive, and there are other
days of the heat when she will almost invariably fail to
conceive. The breeding of wares upon wrong days of the
heat, and the overstraining of stallions and jacks, are the
causes to which the above losses and disadvantages are to
be mainly attributed.

T have studied this subject in a scientific and experimen-
tal way for a number of years, and I am now able to give
directions by which nearly all failures may be avoided, and
foals secured in a large majority of cases by the first leap of
the stallion or the jack. I now publish the result of my
researches for the benefit of my cotemporaries in this
branch of business, .

AUTHOR.

NECESSITY OF IMPROVEMENT IN THE MAN-
AGEMENT OF STALLIONS, JACKS AND
MARES IN BREEDING.

The fact that the course which is pursued at the present
day, in the management of stallions, jacks and mares in
breeding, has escaped scientific research and has prevailed
for centuries is no argument that it can not be and ought
not to be improved. An improvement is much needed, not
only to avoid the failures which oceur on the part of about
thirty-five or forty mares of every one hundred mares
which are annually bred, but also to prevent the necessity
of the practice of bringing mares in connection with the
stallion or the jack repeatedly. Every person knows, or
should know, that only one connection between the male
and female, throughout the whole animal kingdom, is nee-
cessary to reproduction if the laws of reproduction are com-
plied with. Nature, throughout all her departments,
involves fixed laws, and we succeed or fail in all our pur-
suits which are in any way connected with nature accord-
ingly as we understand the laws of nature and conform to
them. The reason why this improvement has not been
made before is that the matter has never been carefully
studied and experimented upon in the light of science.

While I admit that all rules have their exceptions, and
tuat there is no rule or set of rules that will cover all cases,
yet, by conformity to the directions given in this work, the
many failures which now occur upon the part of mares to
get with foal may be nearly all avoided, and foals may be
secured, in the majority of cases, by the first leap of the
stallion or the jack. This would render the business of
rearing horses and mules far more successful and profitable.
It would render. stallions and jacks far more profitable to
their owners. It would also result in a great saving of
tine to owners of mares.

REPRODUCTION----ITS NATURE, NECESSITY
AND DESIGN. 7 .

Reproduction is that property with which every plant in
the vegetable kingdom and every animal-in the animal
kingdom was endowed in the beginning for their perpetuity
and increase. It is that principle which connects the myr-

3

iads of plants and aniinals now upon the earth with the
parent stocks of every variety which were created in the
beginning. Had this provision in the laws of nature never
existed, the vegetable and animal kingdoms would have
perished with the parent stocks and only the gaseous and
mineral kingdoms would have continued to exist.

There are two kinds of reproduction, viz: vegetable
reproduction and animal reproduction. The reader thor-
oughly understands al] the conditions involved in the
reproduction of the plant. He knows the necessary condi-
tions of warmth and moisture for the sprouting of the seed
and the growth of the plant. He knows that if the seed be
planted when the ground is too cold or too dry or tov damp,
the latent germ or embryo will not grow, and that the seed
will fail to reproduce a new plant. These conditions are
thoroughly understood by the fariner. Therefore he knows:
when and how to plant so as to depend upon certain success
in the reproduction of a new plant.

Reproduction in the animal kingdom, like reproduction
in the vegetable kingdom, involves fixed laws and condi-
tions. The reason why certain success in the reproduction
of the colt can not be depended upon is that-the laws and
conditions of animal reproduction are more complicated,
and therefore they are not understood and obeyed,

THE MALE PRINCIPLE OF REPRODUCTION.

Unlike vegetable reproduction, animal reproduction in-
vobves the union of two principles, viz: the male and the
female principles. The male principle is known by the
name of semen. Though nearly all persons are acquainted
with the appearance and some other characteristics of semen,
yet but very few have any correct idea of its reproductive
functions. It has been discovered by the use of the micro-
scope that semen, or the thick, ropy part thereof, consists
of innumerable living, moving specks of matter called sem-
inal animaleules. These animalcules are invisible to the
naked eye and are so very small that there are thousands of
them in a particle of semen not larger than a grain of mus-
tard seed. Each of these invisible seminal animalcules is
the male principle, and is sufficient for the formation of the
germ or embryo of the future animal, when brought in con-

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nection with the female prineiple in the womb of. the
female.

ss

THE FEMALE PRINCIPLE OF REPRODUCTION.

It is a well known fact among scientists that all animals
come from an ovum or ege. The ovum or ege is the female
principle involved in the formation of the germ of the fu-
ture animal. The egg is produced in the female by an
organ denominated the ovaria or ege bag. This Organ is
connected with the womb by two duets or canals ealled ovi-
ducts. It consists of two lobes and performs a funetion
siinilar to that of the testes or stones of the male, the
foriner producing the female principle and the latter pro-
ducing the mile principle of animal reproduction.

The ovaria is the organ which is cut out of domestic ani-
nals in the process of spaving. Domestic animals remain
barren, after being spayed, because they eannot produee
any more eggs. The egg varies in size in different animals,
being larger in fowls than in any other part of the animal
ereation. In the higher orders of animals it is generally
very small. In the human female, when the eco is emitted
from the ovaria and enters the canal -of the oviduct it is so
small as to be searcely perceptible. Among other animals
it is proportionately small, according to their size. The
egos are emitted from the ovaria at regular periods of time,
which vary in different animals. Among the higher orders
of animals the eggs are emitted at regular periods of time, a
month apart. Impregnation and conception are brought
about by the contact or union of one of the seminal animal-
cules of male semen with the egg of the female in the
womb. Hence there can be no conception unless both prin-
ciples are united in the womb of the female.

Poa sal

THE SEXUAL HEAT OF THE MARE.

The egg, after being emitted from the ovaria, passes
through the canal of the oviduct into the womb. This
passage requires a certain length of time, which varies in
different animals. My observation in the breeding of mares
leads me to believe that the passage of the egg through the
oviduct into the womb generally requires about two days.

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The heat of the mare commences about the time the egg is
emitted from the ovaria and, as a general rule, continues
six or seven days. The egg generally enters the womb
about two days after the heat commences and remains in
the womb about two days, and if not impregnated it then
passes out and is ejected from the system.

CAUSES OF FAILURES ON THE PART OF MARES
TO GET WiTH FOAL.

There are several occasional causes of failures, to which a
very few of the failures may be attributed; but there are
only two main causes. There are a very few mares that are
in some way defective in their reproductive organs, and will
not breed under any circumstances. I have one of this kind
myself. Mares are more liable to fail when bred to jacks
than when bred to stallions, because it is crossing the breed.
Excessive fat on the part of the female is an obstacle to re-
production throughout the whole animal kingdom. I have
noticed that China sows are not near so prolific as sows of
other breeds, because they are nearly always excessively fat.
Very fat hens lay but very few eggs. Very fat mares are
more liable to fail to produce colts than when kept in an or-
dinary state of flesh. While a very few of the failures may
be attributed to the above causes, the large majority are due
to the mismanagement of stallions, jacks and mares in breed-
ing; either to the overstraining of stallions and jacks, by
which their efficiency is impaired, or to the breeding of
mares on wrong days of the heat, when the egg is not in the
womb.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE PROPER MANAGEMENT
OF MARES IN BREEDING.

This chapter and the one that follows are of the greatest
importance, as the success of both the owners of stallions

3) J
and jacks and the owners of mares depends upon proper
management in breeding.
Persons who have the management of mares in br eeding
should not allow them to become too fat, because excessive
fat upon the part of the female is an obstacle to reproduc-
tion. They should have their mares bred to the stallion or
the jack upon the third day of the heat. because the egg is
invariably in the womb, in a proper condition for impregna-
tion, on the third day of the heat. The commencement of
the heat may be easily discovered, by watching the condition
of the mare from day to day through the breeding season.
About the time the heat commences the outward sexual
organ presents the appearanee of looseness and slight en-
largement. A small clot of bloody mucus, caused from the
bursting of the ege through the thin membrane of the
ovaria, may be seen acthering to the lower end of the outer
sexual organ at the time of the commencement of the heat.
This denotes that the egg has been emitted from the ovaria
and has entered the canal of the oviduct. About the same
time the restlessness, ranting and neighing, the squealing and
pawing of the mare when brought in contact with other
horses, become noticeable as unmistakable signs of the com-
menecement of the heat. Counting the day upon which these
signs commence as the first day, the mare should be bred
upon the third day of the heat. This is the day upon which
I have inv mares bred, and I scarcely ever have to put them
the seeond time, and when [I do have to put them the seeond
time I suppose that it is to be attributed to mismanagement
of the stallion or the jaek.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE PROPER MANAGEMENT
OF STALLIONS ANDJACKS.

Upon the proper management of stallions and jacks, also,
depends to a great extent the suecess of both the owners of
stallions and jacks and the owners of mares. If stallions
and jacks be mismanaged, mares may fail to conceive when
bred upon proper days of the heat, when the egg is in the
womb, inasuitable condition forimpregnation. Careshould
be taken in the way of feeding, watering, currying and exer-
cising moderately, in order to keep them in a eood state of
flesh, and full of rich blood, as it is from the blood that the

‘

semen is produced. If stallions and jacks are mismanaged
and overstrained, their efficiency is proportionately im-
paired, Mares frequently fail in consequence of this ineffic-
iency. There are, also, many inferior colts, horses and
mules in consequence of this inefficiency upon the part of
‘stallions and jacks. caused from overstraining. Stallions
and jacks should be worked or ridden but very little, only
enough to afford sufficient exercise for health and vigor.

Two mares each day are as Many as any stallion or jack
can serve efficiently. If not under four years old, nor over
ten years old, they can perform two services a day efficiently
provided they are allowed four hours between services,
for rest and restoration of their sexual vigor and efficiency ;
but, if under four years old, or over ten years old, they
should not be allowed to perform more than one service each
day.

AMauHBEES of stallions and jacks should give the following
notice to their patrons in their advertisements, viz.:

All persons who patronize my stallion or jack (as the case
may be) are required to strictly conform to the following
directions, viz.:

Observe the condition of your mares closely from day
to day.

Note the time of the commencement of their heat, and
bring them to my stallion or jack upon the third day of
the heat.

ADVANTAGES TO BE GAINED BY CONFORMITY
TO THE FOREGOING DIRECTIONS.

By conformity to the foregoing directions, seventy-five
mares of every one hundred annually bred to stallions would
would coneeive upon the first leap of the stallion. Seventy
of every one hundred mares annually bred to jacks would
conceive upon the first leap of the jack. The remainder, in
both cases, would nearly all conceive upon the second leap
of the stallion or the jack. It is safe to say that there would
not be more than five failures to produce colts out of every
one hundred mares annually bred. This would render stal-
lions and jacks far more profitable to their owners. It would
insure better colts in many cases than are now produced. It
would render the business of rearing horses and mules more

&§ 6

successful and profitable to those engaged in it. It would’
also, result in a great saving of time to owners of mares, in
the way of only having to go with their Mares to the stal-
lion or jack one time in the large majority of cases. Where-
as, under the erroneous course now pursued, mares have to
be put to the stallion or the Jack repeatedly in a large ma-
jority of cases, and then thirty-five or forty of every one
hundred annually bred fail to produce colts,

REASONS FOR PUBLICATION.

Having devoted a considerable portion of my time through
life to farming and stock raising, the evils and disadvant-,
ages mentioned in this pamphlet attracted my attention
years ago, and IT set-about investigating their causes and de-
vising means by which they might be remedied. Aided by
a thorough knowledge of natural science, I have succeeded
in accomplishing this task. | consider my discovery a valu-
able application of science to practical industry. It will
vastly increase the productive power of Jabor in the braneh
of industry to whieh it pertains; and this inerease of pro-
ductive power throughout the world, in a braneh of indus-
try which is really indispensable to the prosperity and hap-
piness of all classes, will be a matter of great importance.

Though animal reproduction is a matter of extreme deli-
cacy, yet I feel that the utility and importance of my dis-
covery, and the advantages that will accrue from its publi-
cation, not only justify me in publishing it, but render it a
duty to myself and my fellowman for me to publish it.

AUTHOR.

45

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