Excerpt from The American Farmer's Horse Book As this work goes to press, the author is confined to his bed with a painful and protracted sickness, rendering him unable to write a preface. Were he able to do so, however, he would not be called upon to make an apology for the issue of such a work. It needs no apology. It meets our most sanguine expectations, and we feel sure it will receive the warm approbation and cordial support of those interested in the horse and mule. The work had a natural origin, and a slow, healthy growth and development, arriving at full maturity before being sent forth to the world. The author commenced the study of the subject some twenty years ago, for the purpose of discovering rational modes of treatment for Fistula and Big Head, which were making fearful ravages among his own stock, the only modes of treatment known being the barbarous and, to a great extent, ineffectual ones, still in general practice in many localities in the Valley of the Mississippi. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.