FOOD AND GENERAL TEEATMENT. 405 



Disease, except from accident, is but seldom a tenant of 

 the pasture. j^Tearly all the disorders of the horse are gen- 

 erated in the stable, and were 

 it not for the pasture in which 

 they are sometimes permitted 

 to run, hundreds and thou- 

 sands of horses would be sick 

 that are now in tolerable 

 health. It is well that pasture 

 is provided during one-half 

 the year, so that the damage 

 done in the stable during the 

 other half may be repaired. 

 There is no need that the latter should ever occur. And 

 this leads us to speak of the different kinds of • 



GRASSES. 



If more attention were paid to securing these for use 

 during the winter, there would be less sickness among the 

 farmer's horses. There is considerable diversity in the char- 

 acter and value of different grasses, some possessing a much 

 greater proportion of nutriment than .others. Others are 

 especially adapted for pasture in the spring season, as they 

 come up very quickly but do not last so well. They can not en- 

 dure the heat and drouth of summer, but wither and dry up* 



Other kinds of grass are more hardy; so -that, although 

 fhe old straw may die in August and September, they spring 

 up again from the roots and seeds of the old stock. Such 

 are the clovers, the herd's-grass, and some others. They 

 drop their seed in the fall season, and these lie on the ground 

 until spring. Then they come up, very small at first, but 

 continue to grow, and become the fine, tender grass of the 

 fall pastures. The roots of these are what shoot up and 

 make the pastures of spring. Such grasses are termed jper- 

 ennials; that is, lasting more than two years. 



There are many other species of the grasses that grow up 

 rankly in the spring, but live only one season, and these are 



