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winter a thin glossy coat is not very desirable. ITa- 

 ture gives to every animal a warmer clothing when 

 the cold weather approaches. The horse, the agri- 

 cultural horse especially, acquires a thicker and 

 lengthened coat, in order to defend him from the 

 surrounding cold. Man puts on an additional and a 

 warmer covering, and his comfort is increased, and 

 his health improved by it. He who knows anything 

 of the farmer's horse, or cares about his enjoyment, 

 will not object to a coat a little longer, and a little 

 roughened when the wintry wind blows bleak. The 

 coat, however, not to be so long as to be unsightly, 

 and warm clothing, even in a cool stable, will, with 

 plenty of honest grooming, keep the hair sufficiently 

 smooth and glossy to satisfy the most fastidious. 



The over-heated air of a close stable saves much 

 of this grooming, and therefore the idle attendant 

 unscrupulously sacrifices the health and safety of the 

 horse. When I have presently to treat of the hair 

 and skin of the horse, this will be placed in a some- 

 what different point of view. If the stable is close, 

 the air will not only be hot, but foul. The breath- 

 ing of every animal contaminates ; and when in the 

 course of the night, with every aperture stopped, it 

 passes' again and again through the lungs, the blood 

 cannot undergo its proper and healthy change ; 

 digestion will not be so perfectly performed, and all 

 the functions of life are injured. Let the owner of a 

 valuable horse think of his passing twenty, or 



