STUD BOOK. 105 



with good and nutritious food for the purpose of augmenting 

 it when insufficient, but the nature of the food requires to be 

 regulated by the constitution of the individual 



A mistaken notion of economy frequently induces persons 

 to turn their horses into the grass fields during the summer 

 months. A few words may serve to dispel that delusion. 

 Twenty-two bushels of oats, allowing one bushel per week, 

 which is sufficient for young stock or horses not in work, 

 from the 15th of May to the 16th of October, may be estima- 

 ted as the produce of a trifle more than half an acre of land. 

 From ten to twelve hundredweight of hay may be estimated 

 as the produce of another half-acre, although a ton and a 

 half per acre is not more than an average crop on land in 

 good condition. It will require an acre of grass-land capa- 

 ble of producing a ton and a-half of hay to support a horse 

 during the above-named period. When the relative value of 

 a horse which has been kept on hay and corn is compared 

 with that of one which has been grazed, the verdict will be 

 considerably against the latter. 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF HORSES. 



There is not a more important subject than the man 

 agement of the colt, from the earliest period, and the pre- 

 pering and fitting him for the duties that he has to 

 perform. The mare is usually at heat nt some period in 

 the spring, varying from the middle of February to the 

 latter end of May. The age of the foal is reckoned from 

 January, therefore it is a matter of some consequence among 

 racing men that the mare should foal early; for two or three 

 months' difference in the age of the colt will materially in- 

 fluence the running at two years old. For mares of other 

 classes, the months of March, April, and May, are the most 

 favorable periods. There is, however, a strange difference 

 in the length of the period of pregnancy in the mare, more 

 so than in any other domesticated animal The cause of this, or 

 the circumstances that influence it, have never been satisfac- 

 torily explained. The writer of this sketch had two mares that 

 were impregnated within two days of each other. One of 

 them foaled a fortnight within the eleven months; the other 

 did not drop her foal until four weeks after the expiration 

 of the eleventh month. There was no possibility of a second 

 impregnation. 



The mare needs not to be taken from moderate work 

 because sne is pregnant. Exercise win be of advantage to 



