576 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



and children, while the men are in the fields," says a French 

 writer. In the kind handling of colts and stallions, the same 

 writer adds, " lies the secret of good training and the art of 

 uniting in the horse a cool and calm temper with a decided 

 character. He (the farmer) is laborious, and loves to stir the 

 soil; hence his practice of early-working the colts, which renders 

 them laborious and honest. He only requires of them work in 

 proportion to their strength, and gives them good nourishment." 



Care of Breeding Mares. Among farmers there are two 

 extremes. One class work their brood-mares as they do their 

 mules or geldings, and expect them to fill the place in the team 

 until nature calls a halt, and the foal must be cared for; and in 

 a week's time after the foal has been dropped the mare is 

 put into the team on the road, or in the furrow, and must do 

 the work of her mate and the additional duty of furnishing 

 milk for the colt that follows her. This double tax on the 

 mare, at a time when she is reduced from the supreme labor of 

 maternity, must work ill to dam and colt, thus entailing double 

 loss for the cruel and heartless attempt to make double gains 

 by overtaxing the powers of the mare. 



Effeminacy comes with Idleness. The other extreme 

 is that of keeping mares in idleness, confinement in heated sta- 

 bles, and feeding with grain, and withholding exercise, sunlight, 

 fresh air, and the grass which nature has provided as the great 

 corrective of the system of animals that are to produce young 

 and give milk. In this case we have effeminacy and want of 

 vigor in dam and foal. It is 'important that the mare be kept 

 up to the highest condition of vigor and strength by judicious 

 exercise and feeding. These must be given regularly. Ex- 

 treme of all kinds must be avoided. Rapid work and sudden 

 shocks, by pulling heavy loads over rough roads, are haz- 

 ardous. 



Feed and Care Important. The feed should be liberal 

 and of good quality. The mare in foal or suckling a colt is 

 eating to support two lives, not one, and she can not supply food 

 convenient and sufficient for her growing colt unless she is fed 

 liberally of milk and force-producing grains and grasses. Heat- 



