10 Feb., 1919.] 



Mothering Orphan Foals. 



125 



Victorian Rainfall — continued. 



N.B.— 100 points = 1 inch. 



MOTHERING ORPHAN FOALS. 



Althougii foals are Bot worth anything like the money in iSTew 

 Zealand that they would realize to-day in the Homeland — not, perhaps, 

 within some .scores of sovereigns — yet they are worth saving, as prices 

 must level up when things are back to normal. The motherless foal 

 may to-day be deemed not worth saving, but we wish to combat this 

 view despite the fact that infinite tireless i^atience alone spells success in 

 rearing the orphan. If it becomes necessary to rear a foal whose mother 

 has died, some few necessary points must be borne in mind. The milk 

 of the mare has more sugar and less fat in it than the milk of the cow, 

 but there is not a vast difference. It is best to use the milk of a cow 

 as newly-calved as possible, and the closer the milk comes to having, 

 say, 3 per cent, of butter-fat in it the better. Avoid a rich milk. For 

 the first feed to a young orphan foal take a heaped dessertspoonful of 

 granulated sugar, and just enough water to dissolve it. Then add three 

 tablespoonfuls of lime water and enough new milk to make a pint. Heat 

 this to just blood heat, and let the foal suck by half-teaspoonfuls from 

 some sort of container fitted with a nipple. Feed about this quantity 

 every hour for the first few days in the case of a foal which has lost its 



