Different methods have been suggested for exterminating these pernicious insects; the most simple of which appear to be the following: Towards the end of April, hornets are found on rotten planks, gates, and posts, in a torpid state: each of these insects contains the generation of a swarm; and as they may then be easily taken, the destruction of one, before they breed, is equal to the extirpation of numbers. After they are hatched, hornets chiefly infest melon-beds, where they occasion great injury to the fruit. In order to prevent these depredations, it has been recommended to procure slender rods of different lengths, and to rub the ends of them with bird-lime. By touching the insects with these rods, they may easily be taken; and, as the females only proceed in quest of food, by destroying these, the whole brood will consequently perish.
HORSE, or Equus, L. a genus of quadrupeds consisting of five species: the principal of these is the caballus, or common horse, which has a flowing mane, anil the whole of its tail is covered with long hair.
There are, strictly speaking, no wild horses to be met with at present; and those which are suffered to roam at large in Tartary, Siberia, and America, are of a small size, inelegant form, and extremely intractable.—In a domestic state, the horse is bold, intrepid, docile, and attached to the company of man: indeed no quadruped is so eminently qualified for both purposes, the saddle, and the harness. In the breeding of horses, however, sound and well-shaped animals ought to de selected with particular care; as the strength and excellence of the race entirely depend on this circumstance. For elegance, the Spanish and Italian breeds are preferable; but, for the more useful purpose of draught, those of Britain, Normandy, and Holstein, are the most esteemed.
The females, or mares, bring forth one colt after a gestation of eleven months: none of the parent creatures should be under four years of age. Castration is commonly performed when the colt is twelve or eighteen months old; but the most general, and, we believe, the best practice is, to delay that operation till the animals attain the age of at least two years; for they will then retain a greater degree of strength and spirit. If properly kept, they live to the age of forty years; but mares do not breed after eighteen, and stallions are useless at the age of twenty, so that they are fit only for the harness.
The horse being an animal of extensive utility, the most proper and least extravagant manner of feeding and keeping him, becomes an object of considerable importance. Hence, potatoes, carrots, furze, cabbages, &c. have been successfully tried as substitutes for oats, and the more expensive method of corn-feeding: where, however, grain is used, the most economical way will be to boil, and give it in a cool state to the animals, together with the liquor; by which simple means one half may be saved. Carrots are particularly serviceable, as broken-winded horses, when fed on these roots, speedily recover. A considerable reduction may also be made, by cutting the hay into a kind of chaff, and mixing with it straw, or the broken ears of corn, which arise in
