LIVE STOCK. 403 



condition twice as long, if they were thoroughly well fed* and 

 cared for. • 



At the National Horse Show at Springfield, several years ago, 

 Mr. Lewis B. Brown, of New York, exhibited a four-in-hand 

 team, which trotted around the course in about three minutes. 

 The united ages of the four horses amounted to more than one 

 hundred years, and even the oldest of them remained useful for a 

 long time after that. Indeed, Mr. Brown told me that he did not 

 consider it of much importance that a horse should be less than 

 twenty years old. Yet, as we look over the farms of even our 

 best farming districts, how few useful teams do we find that are 

 more than fourteen or fifteen years old. Deducting the years of 

 their colthood, we see that the period of their possible usefulness 

 is reduced fully one-half by careless and injudicious treatment, 

 and especially by stingy or indiscreet feeding. To go over the 

 whole range of directions for feeding, from the time when the 

 mare is first got with foal, until the foal is worn out by years of 

 service, would require more space than can here be spared. Con- 

 cerning farm-horses, the following directions from Herbert's 

 " Hints " will be found useful : — 



" With regard to mere farm-horses, it is, usually, the habit to 

 " feed them entirely on hay, or cut straw, with now and then a 

 " mash, giving them little or no oats or corn. It is certain, how- 

 *' ever, that this is a mistake. That the value of the work which 

 "the horse can do, and of the horse himself, arising from his im- 

 " proved condition and increased endurance, will be materially 

 " raised, while the actual cost of his keep will not be very materially 

 " increased by the diminution of the quantity of the cheaper 

 " and less nutritious food given to him, and the addition of a 

 " smaller or larger portion of the more nutritive grain, which fur- 

 *' nishcs stamina and strength in a degree greatly in excess of its 

 " own increased value, may be assumed as facts. 



" Slow-working horses do not, of course, require so much nutri- 

 " ment of a high quality, as those which are called on to do quick 

 "■ work, and perform long distance; ; but, as a rule, all animals 

 "which have to do hard work, and much of it, must necessarily 



