552 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



When a mare is worked reasonably up to the time of her foaling, con- 

 ditions for parturition are as a rule ideal, and a "lusty" foal is to be 

 expected. Once on his feet the little one gets a drink of the colostrum 

 which has been formed from a rich grain diet and presumably all goes 

 well with him until the fatal mistake is made. Without a moment's warn- 

 ing the diet of the mare is radically changed. 



Now a foal is a busy little sucker and gets about all the milk his 

 mammy gives time and time again per day. On the grass the flow is much, 

 increased. The composition of the milk is changed and there is lots more" 

 of it. Instead of a rather meager supply of grain-made milk there comes 

 down on increased flow and then the trouble begins. He goes at the dug 

 again and again, drinking eagerly the fresh grass milk so bountifully 

 supplied. More trouble follows. The mare loosens up and her milk causes 

 the foal to do likewise. In a very short time he has a well developed case 

 of scours, showing indigestion and the utter inability of his little tender 

 stomach to care for the much increased volume of changed food poured 

 into it. Indeed the grass made milk has merely been so much poison to 

 him, and it makes no difference where this thing happens — from 

 "Zemblia's shores to far Peru" — the result will be the same. Therefore 

 it will not pay any owner of a grain-fed mare suddenly to turn her and her 

 colt out on the grass. 



If the mare has been accustomed to run on pasture at night, to get her 

 three feeds a day and to work, then she may be turned out in three days 

 after foaling, or even sooner, but her grain must be continued for best 

 results. It she has not been on grass at all the transition must be worked 

 very gradually, only a few minutes at a time to begin with. It is well 

 known that mares suckling foals and the foals themselves should have 

 some grain every day of their lives, but every one will not believe this. 

 However, it will stand the unbelievers well in hand to bow to the dictum 

 at least until the foals have passed beyond the danger point. 

 ? ^ 



WEANING THE COLT, 



FABMERS' TEIBUNE. 



A correspondent writes that he has a 5-months-old colt. He wants to 



' know when this colt ought to be- weaned as well as how it ought to be 



treated during the coming winter in order to secure the best results. The 



colt is out of a heavy draft mare, and he is anxious to make as big a horse 



out of it as possible. 



If our correspondent has not taught his colt to eat grain, he should by 

 all means do so at once. Most colts learn to eat grain with their dams 

 during the summer season, but even in such cases it is a good idea to 

 halter-break them and let them eat by themselves before weaning. Hav- 

 ing become accustomed to this, the weaning process is less difficult. Care 



