HOW TO BUY AXD SELL. 65 



certainly, while the nausea resulting from the medicine 

 lasts, the desired effect is produced; but, when the nausea 

 is gone, the horse returns more ravenously than ever to the 

 practice, and so, eventually, by repeated physickmgs, the 

 healthy tone of the stomach is destroyed, and the refu- 

 sal to eat sufficiently is met with extra medicine, in a 

 vain attempt to restore the appetite which has been wan- 

 tonly and foolishly damaged. 



To such alarmists a few observations concerning this 

 craving of the horse may be useful. I myself have been 

 asked to pro\T[de some preventive for this habit, and 

 my invariable answer has been, — '' Keep better food be- 

 fore the horse; never let him stand too long without ex- 

 ercise or sufficient to eat, and you may depend upon 

 finding that he will never eat his dirty bed." 



If you follow this advice, you may be sure that he will 

 not eat dirty straw, and that, if he does eat a little clean 

 straw from his new bed, he does so only either when he 

 finds an unthreshed ear, or when, having been too highly 

 fed, he picks up a little to distend his stomach with some- 

 thing rather less nutritious than his accustomed fare. 



Bed-eating is not a disease, and a horse with this habit 

 can be warranted as Sound. 



And, as it is not attended by any real inconvenience, 

 but is often a proof of good constitution, it is not even 

 regarded as a Vice. 



Arabs are delighted when they see a horse eat his own 

 dung, saying that that is a proof that he will not starve. 



More harm is done by letting horses stand too long 

 without food than by putting too much before them; and 

 although it is true that a ravenous horse does occasion- 

 ally burst his stomach by excess in eating, as for instance, 

 when he gets loose and finds out the corn-bin, yet such 

 cases occur only when he has been much restricted in his 

 diet, or has been worked for many hours, at a spell, with- 

 out food. These cases are of very rare occurrence, and 



