214 HORSEMANSHIP. 



on it. Much of the dark sepia-coloured moss Htter now 

 sold of German and Dutch manufacture is taken too low 

 down from the surface of the bog, has lost all its elasticity, 

 most of its powers of absorption, and is quite unfit for 

 bedding. That from some of the Irish bogs, when properly 

 prepared, is of superlative quality, and fully answers all the 

 requirements of a thoroughly good litter. Horses will not 

 eat it, and that is one point of importance. By selling the 

 used bedding as manure one omnibus company bedded their 

 horses for nothing, and made, moreover, a profit on the 

 transaction. No drains are required when moss litter is 

 used. 



Always keep a lump of rock salt, and one of chalk, in the 

 manger. 



On a journey the horse's feed may be increased from 

 one-third to one-half. 



Never let a horse be groomed when feeding. 



Avoid artificial physic as much as possible. Tslany 

 grooms are constantly doctoring their horses, giving con- 

 dition balls, powders, and such like poisonous rubbish. 

 Especially partial are they to diuretic balls, a frequent 

 cause of inflammation of the kidneys. Arsenic, judiciously 

 administered, is very valuable in improving and "satiuizing " 

 the horse's skin ; it improves the appetite, and helps to get 

 any unthrifty horse into condition, so these groom-doctors 

 give it constantly, and in dangerous quantities, not un- 

 frequently — vide police-court reports — causing death. 



Of white oils, black drinks, alterative powders, and the 

 numerous drinks of the wholesale or retail farm and stable 

 drug vendor, I have a horror. Some owners are constantly 

 using these much puffed " sovereign remedies," external and 

 internal, doing incalculable mischief. Many of the quack 

 liniments and embrocations are worthless, others the stable- 



