DIVISION OF ANIMAL El' SB AN DRY 583 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



hours on the big cut-away disc. Nor should she get these five nours all in a stretch,, 

 but half in the morning and half in the afternoon. This means that another has 

 to be hitched and brought to the. field to replace her, whilst she is taken to the barn. 

 To do good work at making straight drills, or working the disc seeder the shortest 

 way across the field, two quiet horses are needed and should be used nearly all the 

 time by the same man. If two in-foal mares cannot stand ten hours a day of this, 

 then two mares not in foal must be used, which takes them away from harder work 

 where 4 or even 5 in-foal mares might have to be used to replace them. 



Even if the farmers of Quebec, during the next 25 years, find that the ever- 

 increasing wages of hired men compel them to use heavy horses, the work which will 

 be done here with the French Canadian will not be lost, as we will be breeding 

 horses about 200 pounds heavier than the common run of mares of this province, and 

 by disseminating this blood, the breeding stock will be increased in size and better 

 prepared to be advantageously topped with draught stallions than it now is. 



FEED AND CARE OF BROOD MARES. 



Timothy, clover, swedes, oats and bran were fused. Tor details, I beg to give 

 copy of the written instructions given to the horseman at the beginning of winter: — 



'Morning. — 4 pounds timothy, 4 pounds clover. 



' Noon. — 5 pounds oats, 1£ pounds bran. 



' Night — (When the mares have worked more than five hours), 6 pounds 

 timothy, 3 pounds clover, 5 pounds oats, 1| pounds bran, 6 pounds swedes. 



' When the mares have worked less than five hours, 9 pounds clover, 6 pounds 

 swedes. 



' N.B. — If there is constipation, cut down the oats and increase bran and 

 swedes; if bowels are too loose, increase oats and cut down bran and swedes.' 



The mares were weighed every two weeks and when, in a very few cases, it was 

 found that they had lost weight, they were kept during the next fortnight on the 

 ration ' when the mares have worked more than five hours/ even if they worked less. 

 At the same time, lighter work was given them, and every time, without a single 

 exception, they regained the lost weight and more during this period. 



There were two reasons for feeding only hay in the morning; the first was to 

 give the mares more time to eat this roughage, as they received only grain at noon, 

 having just one hour for their noon meal. Besides, if grain and meal had been fed 

 in the morning, the horseman, not knowing at noon which of the mares were to work 

 in the afternoon, would not have known if he again should feed grain or not. 



A rigid rule was made that the in-foal mares had to go out of the stable every 

 day except Sunday. When 'there was no work to do which was suitable for them, 

 they were hitched on a sleigh and driven for at least half an hour. They had to get 

 exercise and they got it, rain or shine. They were never asked to draw very heavy 

 loads, nor to back even a small load, and they worked reasonably, without either 

 doing too much or being coddled. It will be disappointing if they do not drop 

 strong colts, though the raising four healthy colts from four in-foal mares is not 

 anticipated. 



RAISING COLTS. 



The weanling filly weighed exactly 755 pounds the day she was one year old. 

 Her dam's weight is between 1,100 to 1,150 pounds. There seems no doubt that this 

 filly will weigh over 1,250 pounds at maturity. She is as big as most yearlings which 

 the writer has seen when visiting over twenty stables to buy Trench Canadian 



