— 210 — 



Breed as good a mare as you can afford to own ; breed to as good a 

 stallion as you feel that you can afford to use, but always keep in 

 view the general useful qualities of the horse for any work covering 

 good size, fifteen and one-half to sixteen and one-half hands, good 

 strong bone, heavily muscled, good disposition, good appearance, 

 with soundness of parts and well-gaited and high breeding, and you 

 will not go astray. Above all, avoid the use of cheap, low bred 

 country stallions standing at a low fee and dear at that ; also horses of 

 unfashionable colors, and those that entail upon their stock white 

 faces and three or four white feet. Such stock is not popular, and if 

 buyers can be got to buy them it will be at a reduced price. A 

 colt from a high bred horse can be raised as cheap as that from a 

 low bred one, but when you come to sell him, the one by the high 

 bred horse will sell for two or three times as much. Buyers appre- 

 ciate the value of good blood and will pay more for it, because their 

 experience has taught them that it is worth more and will sell more 

 rapidly. Feed your colts liberally and they will well repay you for 

 your liberality by making better horses at three and four years of 

 age than they would if half fed at six years old. 



I have presented these thoughts to you as I hastily jotted them 

 down, but I have probably said enough to call your attention to the 

 matter so that you can fully consider it. 



What Errors in Feeding will Do, and How to Prevent 

 Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 



With very rare exceptions diseases of the digestive organs are re- 

 sults of errors in feeding, and all observations point to the conclusion 

 that in the horse the intestines are more liable to suffer from disease 

 than the stomach. The stomach of a horse is a simple organ, small 

 in comparison to the size of the animal and in contrast with the vol- 

 ume of the intestines. It is but slightly called into action during 

 the digestive process, and, provided the food be properly masticated 

 and incorporated with the salivary secretions, it is arrested for a 

 short time only in the stomach, but is passed onward into the intes- 

 tinal canal, where the process of digestion is completed. On this 

 account the intestines are more liable to disease. It is also a remark- 



