282 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



expended to bring a horse back into condition 

 which has been so treated. Now, air and freedom 

 are what the hunter chiefly wants for his holiday, 

 and it is not necessary to turn him out on grazing 

 land. I have known arable farms, which cannot at 

 all times be made remunerative by the cultivation 

 of wheat and barley, used for turning horses out 

 into, as well as for breeding purposes. The late 

 Lord George Bentinck, whose judgment in such 

 matters was unquestionable, was a strong advocate 

 of this plan. 



If there is nothing the matter with a horse, what 

 need is there to physic him ? Yet at the end of 

 the season the first thing that many men do is to 

 administer a strong purgative, and to throw the 

 horse out of condition. What is only required in 

 the majority of cases is a judicious selection of food. 

 It is incompatible with the laws of nature to present 

 food during the summer months in the same highly 

 concentrated form as one would present it during 

 the winter. Besides, we must take into consideration 

 the proportion of exercise or work which the horse 

 is doing, and develop the vital power by food of 

 an appropriate character. In other words, we must 

 replenish the system in accordance with the ex- 

 penditures or exhalations caused by exercise. Now 

 all animals expire more carbon in cold than in warm 

 weather, and consequently require food of a different 

 quality in winter to that which is suitable to them 

 in summer. Thus the fruits upon which the natives 



