578 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Youatt states that it may extend from thirty-nine weeks to fifty 

 weeks. Thus we have as many weeks variation in time as 

 there are months in the average period, or about eleven weeks. 

 A French observer in the royal stables of France observed five 

 hundred and eighty-two mares, and records the longest period 

 four hundred and nineteen days, and the shortest two hundred 

 and eighty-seven days, with an average of three hundred and 

 thirty days. M. Gayot observed twenty-five mares, and found 

 the average three hundred and forty- three days. The longest 

 period was three hundred and sixty-seven days, and the short- 

 est three hundred and twenty-four days. As a rule, small 

 mares carry a shorter time than large ones. There is a com- 

 mon belief, but not confirmed by scientific observation, that the 

 mare carries a horse colt longer than one of the female sex. 



How to Know Foaling Time. Many trust to the in- 

 creasing size of the udder, but as this begins to fill and enlarge 

 from one to three months before the colt is born, it is not defi- 

 nite enough. There will be no foal dropped, however, if the 

 mare be in a normal healthy condition, until the enlargement of 

 the pelvis begins, which is shown by the sinking on each side of 

 the spinal column, near the tail. This occurs within three weeks 

 of foaling time. Nature seems to be absorbing unnecessary fat 

 or tissue from this region, and relaxing the structure and en- 

 larging the region of the pelvis, preparatory to the exit of the 

 foal. The sinking on each side of the spinal extension contin- 

 ues from day to day, as the time approaches. But this is not 

 sufficiently definite. It is, however, a sure sign that the time is 

 not far off, and the careful husbandman will not now tax the 

 strength of the mare by heavy or rapid work, nor take her far 

 her from box-stall or paddock. Her nights should now be spent 

 in a box-stall, with a good bedding of short straw a foot deep, and 

 with no cracks or openings where the mare or the colt could 

 become entangled or caught. The sinking of the haunches is 

 the timely warning. Now let the farmer notice closely the 

 udder, and when it fills, and there appears on the points of the 

 teats a little gummy substance, the colt will follow in one, or at 

 farthest, two days. 



