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a filly. This mare and several others afterwards, went three hundred 

 and thirty-four, or a few days more, making eleven months and odd 

 days. 



A foal cannot come too early in the spring, for those who are provided 

 with forward grass in sheltered paddocks, but it is a miserable sight, to 

 see young stock upon bare commons, parched and rivelled up by the east 

 winds, and the animals almost glandered, or perpetually drenched in cold 

 rains, and scarcely able to crawl after their dams. All things consider- 

 ed, April and May are the most proper months, in which to put the 

 Horse and mare together ; and I think the covering season may very 

 well be extended to the end of June. The extremes of early and late 

 which may happen, are, that from the first period, the foal may appear 

 early in March, and from the other, it may not be dropped until the 

 beginning of July. The mare with the latter foal, will have thi-ee 

 months grass, after which, the herbage declining in both quantity and 

 goodness, an allowance of carrots and hay, or of fine pollard and oats 

 mixed, will make her ample amends, and she will wean her foal at 

 Christmas, in good condition. 



The stinted mares of the stud must be turned off by themselves, into 

 such pastures, as have been described, and no geldings admitted with 

 them, every precaution being taken to prevent the risk of abortion, 

 among which precautions, may be remembered, shelter from the fly 

 during the dog days. Various accidents have been supposed to occa- 

 sion abortion, such as change of water, the company of a he ass, the 

 sight of blood, smell of carrion, or the presence of a mare which has 

 slipped, or lost her conception. Such an one should be immediately 

 removed, and proper care taken of her. 



The health and well doing of the mares being attended to by daily 

 inspection, it is a good method to withdraw each individual, within a 

 few days or a week of her reckoning, to a safe and convenient place, 

 in which she may bring forth by herself, without the risk of avoidable 

 accident. In early foaling and bad weather, sheltered places should be 

 chosen, either without or within doors, such as a large loose stable or 

 barn. The mare brings forth in a standing position and generally in 

 the night, or early in the morning; and is liable to as {cw accidents, 



and 



