Zebras draw a milk wagon on a regular St. Louis, Mo., delivery route. A pair of the animals were recently imported after their purchase from a German circus. The milk concern trained them to wear harness and pull a wagon just as horses formerly did. Comely milkmaids drive them and deliver the bottles to the customers along the route. The novelty appeals to buyers of the firm’s milk, and helps to advertise its products throughout the neighborhood.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Zebra Hitch--Popular Science Jul, 1931
Zebras draw a milk wagon on a regular St. Louis, Mo., delivery route. A pair of the animals were recently imported after their purchase from a German circus. The milk concern trained them to wear harness and pull a wagon just as horses formerly did. Comely milkmaids drive them and deliver the bottles to the customers along the route. The novelty appeals to buyers of the firm’s milk, and helps to advertise its products throughout the neighborhood.
Long gone by the time I got to St. Louis but people still talked about it. The Adams Dairy, one of the last home delivery milk businesses, had a six or eight pony hitch that was pretty fancy into the late 1960s -- maybe later.
ReplyDeleteI have seen another photo of this team pulling the dairy wagon in the snow.
ReplyDeleteThe animals are Hartmann's mountain zebras. Note the wide space between the stripes on the rump. That species also has a telltale dewlap on the throat and the other photo I've seen shows it clearly.