the stomacli. It should always be remembered that the horse has 

 but one stomach, and that is small. While on the one hand this 

 cannot contain enough of coarse innutritious food, like straw or poor 

 hay, to meet the demands of subsistence and growth, yet on the 

 other the food must be bulky enough to admit of the speedy and 

 thorough action of the gastric juice, so that the nutritive portions 

 may be quickly dissolved and the refuse discharged. Where corn 

 meal is fed alone it goes into the stomach in the plastic condition of 

 dough, is there rolled about by the muscular action, is as imper- 

 vious to the digesting juices as a ball of India rubber, and produces 

 fever and frequently serious colic. Where corn is largely fed, its 

 heating effects upon the blood are readily shown in unsoundness at 

 the extremities. The oat is a wholesome food when fed alone, be- 

 cause nearly one- third of its bulk is husk, which makes the mass in 

 the stomach porous like a sponge. I desire to repeat that mixed 

 ha;^ , with a good proportion of clover, oats, wheat, bran and linseed 

 med, all containing albuminoids which furnish the materials for 

 gi'ov/th, must be relied upon to develop a draft horse to his true 

 proportions. He mubt never know a hungry day, and he must never 

 spend an hour shivering on the north side of barn, waiting for 

 his food. While, on the one hand, a stable may be too warm, on the 

 other, every storm in winter is too cold for a steady and vigorous 

 growth. An exposure to cold that produces an active circulation 

 on the surface, and gives to boys and girls bright, rosy cheeks, con- 

 duces to health ; but every exposure that chills the blood draws upon 

 the vital forces and saps the foundations of the constitution. It 

 costs more, and costs double the time, to regain a pound of lost 

 weight than it does to add five pounds in a continuous growth. 



I am strongly in favor of grooming colts in winter, not with the 

 expenditure of labor necessary in using the currycomb and brush, 

 but by a hasty rubbing with a stiff stable broom. It accomplishes 

 two important results — the stimulation of a healthful action of the 

 skin and the acquaintance of the colt with handling and with the 

 contact with substances that otherwise would occasion alarm. This 

 must be commenced with great gentleness. At no time in his 

 growth should a colt ever be frightened. Unnecessary fright ruins 

 multitudes of horses. My own colts, some of which are highly 

 bred, purposely for saddle horses, and are of nervous temperaments, 



