PART III. 

 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



INVESTIGATIONS CONCERNING THE HORSE. 

 I. MARE AND EOAL. 



387. Period of gestation. According to Youatt, 1 the average 

 period of gestation for the mare is 11 months, but it may be dimin- 

 ished by 5 weeks or extended 6 weeks. Of 582 mares reported by 

 M. Tessier, 2 the shortest period was 287, the longest 419, and the 

 average 330 days. William Russell Allen of Allen Farm, 3 Pittsfield, 

 Massachusetts, from records of 1,071 foals produced by trotting 

 mares during 15 years, found the maximum gestation period 373, 

 the minimum 319, and the average 340 days. 



388. Weight and growth of foals. Boussingaialt 4 found that : 

 "1. Foals, the issue of mares weighing from 960 to 1,100 Ibs., 



weigh at birth about 112 Ibs. 



"2. During suckling, for 3 months the weight increases in the 

 relation of 278 : 100, and the increase corresponds very nearly to 

 2.2 Ibs. per head per day. 



"3. The increase in weight per day of foals from the end of the 

 first to the end of the second year is about 1.3 Ibs., and towards 

 the third year the increase per day falls to something under 1 Ib. 



"4. After 3 full years, the period at which the horse has very 

 nearly attained his growth and development, any increase becomes 

 less and less perceptible." 



Allen found 5 the birth-weight of 1,071 trotting-bred foals to be: 



1 The Horse, p. 222. * Rural Economy, Am. ed. 



2 Farmers ' Cyc., Johnson, p. 562. 5 Allen Farm Catalog, 1905. 

 8 Catalog, 1905. 



250 



