168 SERVICE. 



labor in procuring the food, and there is great loss of time. 

 It may cost the horse four or five hours good work to cut 

 down the grass which he eats. A man supplied with a scythe 

 will do the same work with far less labor in a few minutes. 

 If there be nothing else for the horse to do, it is quite right 

 to make him gather his own food. But, otherwise, it is absurd 

 to make him exhaust his strength and time in doing that which 

 a man can do so much more easily and quickly. Besides this 

 expenditure of the horse's time and strength, the loss of 

 manure, and the damage done to pasture by the feet, ought to 

 be taken into consideration. 



The third mode of grazing appears to be the least objection- 

 able. The horses have no field labor on Sunday ; if the pas- 

 ture be good, the weather favorable, and the horses not 

 fatigued, they are better at grass than in the house. 



In some places the road-horses are sometimes put to grass 

 on Sunday. This practice has nothing apparently to recom- 

 mend it. The weekly work of these horses in general de- 

 mands the rest which Sunday brings ; and if they travel at a 

 fast pace, as all coach-horses do now, they are apt to eat so 

 much grass, and carry such a load in their bellies, that on 

 Monday they are easily over- worked. The breathing is im- 

 peded, unless the horses purge, which few do. They often 

 come from grass as haggard and dejected as if they had done 

 twice their ordinary work the day before. 



SERVICE. 



A change of lodging, or of diet, is often a cause of disease. 

 When a fresh horse is procured, it is well to know how he has 

 been treated during the previous month ; if he is a valuable 



