FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 165 



When a Horse is on a journey, he should be fed with hay 

 and provender, and not turned out to grass at evening, for 

 his joints to be stiffened by the dampness and cold of the 

 night, after the warm and severe exercises of the day. To 

 prepare him for a journey, he ought also to be previously 

 kept to hay, with provender, and have moderate daily exer- 

 cise, in oder that his fat may become more solid, and of 

 course his body better enured to fatigue. He ought also 

 to be shod some days before, in order that the shoes may 

 become easy to his feet. 



It would be desirable to have a remedy for the dryness 

 of hay, so as to render it a more agreeable food for Horses, 

 Set a basket of snow before a Horse, while at hay, and he 

 will take a mouthful of hay and then of snow, alternately; 

 Which shows that something is needed to supply the waste 

 ot saliva which is absorbed by the hay while eating. In 

 Summer, Horses might have water constantly before them, 

 but ttie coldness of Winter precludes any substitute but 

 snow, unless something of this kind should be found in 

 feeding plentifully with carrots. Tiiese^Vhey are fond of, 

 and it is found that they wiil keep them as well as oats, 

 and faten those that are lean. Some other kinds of roots 

 would, perhaps, answer equally well, particularly when 

 steamed. 



It is chiefly what rnay be called a comfortable state of 

 existence, or a freeness from suffering, which occasions a 

 Horse to grow fat; and therefore, the less they suffer from 

 thirst, from want of agreeable food, or comfortable stabling, 

 or from too severe exercise, the easier they may be kept in 

 good order. These things are apt to be little attended to; 

 and in this way animals entrusted to our care, which it is 

 our duty to make comfortable while they exist, are often 

 neglected and left to suffer. 



A disorder, called Ptycdism, has for some years past been 

 gaining ground among Horses in Pennsylvania, and is ex- 

 tending to those of this State : This is an excessive water- 

 ing or slavering at the mouth, which prevails mostly during 

 the middle and latter part of the growing season, and tends 

 very much to impoverish these animals, and sometimes 

 even kills them. Various causes have been assigned for 

 this ; but none of them satisfactory. There is, however, 

 a certain remedy for the disorder; this is to soil the 

 Horses. 



See SOILING, &c. 



And to sprinkle the grass thus fed to them with a small 

 quantity of some grain, suitable for them, ground fine., 

 This remedy has the peculiar advantage ot being one thai 

 is profitable^ where some suitable grass is kept for soiling, 



