136 



Should the mare prove constitutionally a bad milker, it ought to be 

 some extraordinary reason to induce her owner to breed from her again. 

 The milk not coming early enough, or in insufficient quantity for the 

 foal's support, assistance must be had, either from some other fresh milker 

 which has it to spare, or the deficiency must be made up with cow's 

 milk skimmed, if too rich, sweetened with a little powder sugar. If the 

 foal be weak, and unable to draw the teats, the mare must be milked 

 by hand, and the foal drenched therewith until it acquire strength. 

 The foal being griped by a change of milk, should have two or three 

 tea-spoonsful of rhubarb in powder, with magnesia, equal parts, given 

 in water gruel. If from cold, instead of magnesia, a table spoonful 

 each of the best brandy and syrup of poppies, may be substituted. 

 On the loss of a mare, or her total inability to suckle, a foal may be 

 reared by hand, and yet make a good Horse for any purpose. The 

 Race-horses, Cade and Milksop were both so reared, as their names 

 indicate. 



Before quitting consideration of the mare, let me remind the common 

 breeder, of an accident too well known from the earliest times to the 

 present, namely, the risk of the mare, which takes her chance at large, 

 foaling in ditch, drain, bog or other dangerous place, when the breeder's 

 whole hope and profit, the fruit of his twelve months' expectation, is 

 gone in an instant ! The mare's reckoning should be attentively kept, 

 and she should be taken, in good time, to a place of safety : always at 

 the completion of the eleventh month, after which there may not be 

 an hour's certainty. Again, the straying of Horses is often a source of 

 much uneasiness and trouble. As a remedy for this, my method upon 

 the commons, used to be a wooden label, bearing my name and place 

 of abode, affixed to the manes of the Horses and colts, and to the horns 

 of young cattle; which simple and easy expedient has, I believe, saved 

 me many a pounding. 



Having had several Horses stolen, I had the intention of locking 

 case-hardened and file-proof rings, containing my name, upon the 

 shanks of those which were turned out, but have not hitherto put it in 

 practice. It must be some security, and were a Horse so provided 

 stolen in the dark, I apprehend, the thief would not well approve his 



bargain 



