542 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



not deficient in the mineral elements corresponding to the salts 

 of the blood. The nourishment supplied to the colt in the 

 milk of the dam must contain, in particular, the elements 

 necessary for the ossification of cartilage and the growth of the 

 bones that is to say, the food supplied to the mare must 

 contain lime and magnesia and phosphoric acid, or the con- 

 stituents of the phosphate of lime and the phosphate of mag- 

 nesia, which constitute so large a proportion of the bones; and 

 also enough of lime, besides, to afford the carbonate of lime 

 therein present. It may be remarked in regard to the prefer- 

 ence given above to the clovers over rye-grass, that both red 

 and white clover contain a great deal more lime than rye-grass, 

 and that lucern contains more lime than the clovers. In 

 lucern there is not much more magnesia than in rye-grass, but 

 as the proportion of phosphate of magnesia in bones is not 

 great, both probably contain enough of this base for the required 

 purpose. The red clover contains more magnesia than the 

 white, but the proportion in both is considerable. Phosphoric 

 acid is most abundant in lucern, yet neither rye-grass nor the 

 clovers are in this respect very deficient. 



The farm-mare should remain on grass without working for 

 at least a month, to enable her body to recover sufficiently to 

 bear the fatigues of labour; and for some time the work she is 

 put to should be of a light character. At the end of a month, 

 or even earlier, the foal will eat bruised oats. While the 

 foal is dependent on the mother's milk, some attention to the 

 proper kind of food to enable her to supply a sufficiency of 

 nutritive milk should be bestowed. There are no very com- 

 plete analyses of the mare's milk, though numerous scattered 

 notices of its composition are to be met with. As already 

 stated (p. 283), it is of considerable specific gravity, indicating 

 that it contains a large proportion of solid constituents. Its 

 specific gravity is greater than that of women's milk, of cows' 



