ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTE. 35 



expense of procuring some of the stoutest and best 

 bred mares, and breeding rare animals, which are 

 fatted on rich pastures till November, starved on litter 

 till the following April (if they live so long),* then 

 fatted again, and so on until another year ; and if they 

 survive such treatment, are sold at five or six years old 

 at no very great size or price, as may well be imagined. 

 Yet the whole object of this gentleman's life is that of 

 breeding blood stock — merely to starve them ! 



On remonstrating with him one day, he replied that 

 ( It made them harder ; at least, such as lived had done 

 great things, and earned the character of being tough, 

 wearing animals in every instance,' forgetting to add 

 that for every one that lived through such treatment, 

 three died ; and that if an animal did live through it, 

 he must of necessity have an iron constitution, and 

 consequently would, under any circumstances, have 

 proved equally good and sound, with the advantage of 

 greater size. I tried to persuade him that nourishment 

 tends to the formation of bone and muscle ; want of it, 

 emaciation and death. I might as well have endea- 

 voured to persuade Mr. Lincoln that his slave emanci- 

 pation Act was the act of a madman. 



It is always true that no people are so obstinate in 

 their theories as those who have neither reason nor 

 facts to back them. Still, in these days of enlighten- 

 ment one is astonished to witness such things. Colts 

 should be weaned early in October and turned into a 

 good fat piece of clover for another six or eight days ; 

 at the expiration of which they will have gained flesh, 



D 2 



