202 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



" The effect," says the North Briton, " on the 

 sinews and joints of the hunter, by a run at grass, is 

 past doubt in my experience." May I request him to 

 state whether he have proved the result by a close 

 application of his system with the one I recommend. 

 His recommending turning horses out to grass as a 

 preventive of botts cannot but create a smile, and 

 is one of the thousand instances we meet with of a 

 man sitting down to write on subjects before, instead 

 of after, he has given himself time to think. If we 

 are to believe writers on natural history, horses kept 

 in the house cannot have botts : they are the larvae 

 of a fly that only molests him in the sunshine, but to 

 whose existence and propagation they are as essential 

 as the air we breathe is to our own lives. Hear what 

 a very highly-esteemed writer ^ on the diseases of 

 horses says on this subject : " The flies from which 

 these botts are produced inhabit the country, and do 

 not come near houses, at least not near those of great 

 towns ; and therefore horses are never liable to have 

 botts in their bodies if they have been kept in the 

 house, especially in town, during the summer and 

 autumn." 



Your Northern correspondent concludes his letter 

 by lamenting that so many promising young race- 

 horses are nipped in the bud by early training ; but 

 as aU the great stakes are for young ones, the owners 

 of them will make their hay when the sun shines. 



In the same number X. B. again comes forward. 

 He begins by telling us that a horse shut up in a well- 



1 Osmer. 



