BREEDING. 219 



neglected constipation. It is impossible now to do 

 the dam too well. In fact, every nursing mother 

 upon the farm ought to be treated to her respective 

 best, if you would have the young one result well, 

 not to speak of maternal exhaustion. Much of the 

 foaPs future excellence depends upon the care taken 

 of him during his first year. Nor should your care 

 cease with the first year. In the Deccan the foal and 

 yearling are shut up in dark hovels, and forced upon 

 the juiciest of food. I should prefer a shed on the 

 slope of a rocky field, having a rack and manger for 

 delicacies. It is astonishing how clever in picking up 

 his feet a horse so reared will become ; how quick of 

 vision to see an obstacle ; how handy to avoid it ; 

 while in proportion to the extra exercise are his arm 

 and thigh developed. 



Above all things, if you breed horses, mind and 

 provide that they have a bite throughout the winter 

 on their paddock. There is nothing for a colt like 

 the taste of green in conjunction with cereals, &c. 

 An eminent breeder I know who has a coarse pasture 

 on purpose "to give them a cupboard," because he 

 says that they are then obliged to eat so much the 

 more to obtain requisite nourishment. This theory 

 (practically clever as he generally is) few will assent 

 to. Such treatment may swell the belly, but cannot 

 expand the girth. Rather the opposite one would 

 think were the right thing. A sufficiency of food of 

 the best quality would be more likely to widen the 

 frame and improve the muscle, without increasing to 

 the verge of deformity the paunch. How difficult is 

 it to steer amidst so many doctors. Rather in these 



