Another discouraging thing about one’s first horses is the illnesses which they contract. As frequently as not this is due to the inexperience of the new owner, or to the change of home and climate. Dealers buying horses frequently have the animals inoculated against cold and fever—shipper’s fever, it is called. This should always be done as the result has been found to be most excellent. “You can get no use out of a Kentucky horse for the first year,” I have heard New Yorkers say. That may have been their experience; but when treated with the proper serum before shipment they do not suffer to any extent with colds and influenza. There is one disease, however, that I do not know how to provide against—nostalgia. The generality of horses are not very affectionate, for they are not very intelligent, being trained more by fear than anything else and going on in their work through custom. But they do love their homes, and that they should suffer from home-sickness until the satisfaction with the new environment wipes out the longing is inevitable. The homing instinct of a horse is very strong and also interesting. Take a horse ten or even twenty miles in a direction never traveled before, and then turn him towards home over a new route, and he knows it instantly and shows that he knows it by a quickened gait and a renewal of spirit. So these things should be taken into consideration with a new horse, and due allowance made for them. A man who has an establishment and keeps many horses has one very difficult problem. It is customary for the coachman to get commissions, whether the coachman has been consulted in the purchase or not. The dealers understand this, and add to the price of the horse what will have to be paid to the coachman. I have had dealers ask me plainly whether I kept a coachman to settle with. And once when I sold a horse to a distinguished professional man in New York, he sent a check for $50 more than the agreed price, asking that that sum be given to the coachman as he did not want the horse lamed or put out of condition. This is a stable tradition that we have borrowed from England, and is a tyranny that should be suppressed not only by law but by custom. I sold a horse recently to a gentleman at a price not at all above his value. His negro coachman called at my house for his commission. I sent him away in short order and at once wrote his master a note telling of the visit and its object, and requesting him to pay his own servants. If a man have leisure for travel, the breeding farm is a good place to purchase a horse. At most of these farms the horses are green, but at some they are thoroughly trained before being offered for sale. But none of these horses are accustomed to the fearsome sights and sounds of the city. So I should advise none but skilful horsemen to go to the farms to make purchases.