WATER. 153 



SO voraciously as to distend the stomach and endanger an attack 

 of the staggers. 



When extra work is required from the animal, the system of 

 management is often injudicious ; for a double feed is put upon 

 him, and as soon as he has swallowed it, he is started. It would 

 be far better to give him a double feed on the previous evening, 

 which would be digested before he is wanted, and then he might 

 set out in the morning, after a very small portion of grain had 

 been given to him, or, perhaps, only a little hay. One of the 

 most successful methods of enabling a horse to get well through 

 a long journey, is to give him only a little at a time while on 

 the road, and at night to indulge him with a double feed of 

 grain and a full allowance of beans. 



The watering of the horse is a very important but disregarded 

 portion of his general management, especially by the farmer. 

 He lets his horses loose morning and night, and they go to the 

 nearest pond or brook and drink their fill, and no harm results ; 

 for they obtain that kind of water which nature designed them 

 to have, in a manner prepared for them by some unknown in- 

 fluence of the atmosphere, as well as by the deposition of many 

 saline admixtures. 



The kind of water fitted for the horse has not been, as a 

 general thing, sufficiently considered. The difference between 

 what is termed hard and so/^ water, is a circumstance of general 

 observation. The former contains certain saline principles, 

 which decompose some bodies, as appears in the curdling of 

 6oap, and prevent the decomposition of others, as in the making 

 of tea, the boiling of vegetables, and the process of brewing. 



