FOOD AND WATER. 233 
But though this view of artificial condimental foods is quite correct, 
it is also true that as an occasional stimulus to a feeble stomach, they 
are highly useful. I have known horses terribly out of condition 
brought round by Thorley’s food in an incredibly short space of time ; 
and-used in this way, I believe it to be highly beneficial. But no stomach 
will go on for ever answering to the same stimulus, and therefore, as a 
constant article of food it is perfectly useless. I can confidently recom- 
mend it for the former purpose, but for the latter it is dear even at the 
reduced rate at which it has been lately sold. 
Satt is the only kind of seasoning which has stood the test of experi- 
ence in this country, and even it is by no means generally employed. 
Some grooms give an ounce of common salt in the water daily, others 
give it by sprinkling it on the hay, while a third set leave a lump of rock 
salt constantly in the manger for the horse to lick. The last is the only 
really safe and useful mode of using this article, and I am persuaded that 
all horses will thrive better if they are allowed a lump of rock salt con- 
stantly within their reach. The quantity which is thus taken is by no 
means large, for rock salt does not easily dissolve by the mere contact of 
the moist tongue. It is only to be procured in certain localities, where it 
is found in the earth in large quantities, the salt mines of Cheshire afford- 
ing the chief supply for England and Scotland. A lump weighing two or 
three pounds is placed in the manger, and it will generally be found that 
a pound will last nearly a month, but there is a great variation in the 
quantity consumed by different horses. 
THE WATER which is given to the horse will materially affect his con- 
dition if it is not suitable to him in quality or quantity, or if he is allowed 
to take it when heated by work. Thirst is most distressing to this animal, 
and if he has not his water regularly when his stomach demands it, he 
will not only refuse his solid food, but he will drink inordinately when he 
has the opportunity, causing colic or founder to supervene. For this 
reason it has lately been the fashion to provide iron tanks on a level with 
the manger, which are intended to be kept constantly full, and indeed 
some are arranged with cisterns and ball-cocks for that purpose. But 
those who contend for this constant supply have overlooked the fact that 
every horse when he first comes into the stable is unfit to be allowed to 
“take his fill” of water, and yet he will be sure to do so if the water 
tank is open to him. Undoubtedly for horses which are never heated by 
work the tank is perfectly safe, because as they never become thirsty, 
since they prevent the full development of the appetite by drinking small 
quantities as it arises, so they are never induced to do themselves an 
mjury by imbibing large quantities of water at any time. On the other 
hand, working horses are kept out of the stable without water for five or 
six hours on the average, and when they come in they are not only very 
thirsty, but they are generally in a state in which a full draught of 
fluid will seriously injure them. For this reason I think the tank 
unsuited to the ordinary private stable, though of course it is easy to 
prevent mischief by taking care either to have a cover over it, which 
is kept down till the horse is cool, or to let off the water for a similar 
period. The question is one involving a choice of evils incidental to 
carelessness, and it is doubtful whether in the long run the horse is more 
likely to be injured by being allowed to fill himself with water at the 
time I have alluded to, or by being deprived of his proper allowance of 
it at regular intervals. Nothing is more easy for the master to detect, 
when he visits his stable (as he should do at uncertain hours), than a state 
