214 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE, 



small scale may do so at a very trifling ex- ing to my cattle, and on account of the value 

 pense by boiling it in a common iron pan or | of the oil contained in the seed. I also con- 



boiler ; mid to prevent any dtmger of its burn- 

 ing to the bottom, the Linseed may be put in- 

 to a coai-se canvas bag, hung by a string to a 

 stick, laid across the boiler — the string to be 

 of such a lengtli that the bag cannot touch the 

 bottom of the pan. After boiling for a short 

 time, the bag may be turned inside out, and 

 the gruel mixed with the chaff" or chopped 

 straw^. To recapitulate shortly : I prefer Lin- 

 seed to cake, because I knov^r what I am giv- 



sider it indispensable that the seed should be 

 crushed, but do not think it necessary to have 

 it made into meal. Lastly, it is a mistake to 

 suppose that any expensive apparatus is re- 

 quired, as the price of a seed-cnisher is not 

 more than that of a cake-crusher ; and the 

 only other utensil indispensably required is a 

 common hon pan or boiler, which almost ev- 

 ery farmer already possesses. 



AN ESSAY ON THE CONDITION OF A STALLION. 



The word condition is used by horsemen in a different sense from that in 

 which it is understood as applied to cattle by the mass of farmers. By condition 

 the farmer often means a high state of fatness ; the horseman, on the contrary, 

 makes use of the word to indicate the greatest health and strength produced by 

 reducing all superfluous fat, bringing the mere flesh into clean, hard and power- 

 ful muscle, and invigorating the lungs and other internal organs, so that they 

 may promptly discharge their respective functions, and suffer no damage from 

 uncommon stress — the vv^hole in order to the animal's performhig labors and sus- 

 taining a continuance of action to which he would not be adequate without such 

 especial preparation. 



By the Condition of a Stallion is meant the state of the system in which the 

 male horse should be kept, in order to deriving from him the greatest excellence 

 in the progeny. 



Too many persons are content to breed their mares to a horse whose figure 

 suits them, without regard to his condition. The mention of one prominent in- 

 stance alone will be sufficient to show that good condition is essential to the pro- 

 duction of a valuable progeny. A remarkable case occurred in England some 

 years since, in so high a quarter as to attract public attention, and consequently 

 the fact of the account's obtaining currency without contradiction is a fair evi- 

 dence of its correctness. The Prince of Wales, who afterward became George 

 the Fourth, owned, and was in the habit of riding as a hunter, an entire horse 

 of unequaled excellence. In consequence of this horse's superior qualities, His 

 Royal Highness caused a few of his own mares to be bred to him in the spring, 

 after he had been kept in the highest condition as a hunter throughout the win- 

 ter, and the produce, on growing up, proved every way worthy of their sire. 

 When His Royal Highness, as Prince Regent, became seriously engaged in the 

 cares of Government, and therefore relinquished the pleasures of the chase, be- 

 ing desirous to perpetuate the fine qualities of this stock, he ordered the horse 

 to be kept at Windsor for public covering, provided the mares should be of the 

 first quality ; and in order to insure a sufficient number of these, directed the 

 head groom to keep him exclusively for such, and to make no charge, with the 

 exception of the customary groom's-fee of half a guinea each. The groom, 

 anxious to pocket as many half guineas as possible, published His Royal High- 

 ness's liberality, and vaunted the qualities of the horse, in order to persuade all 

 he could to avail themselves of the benefit. The result was, the horse being 

 kept without his accustomed exercise and in a state of repletion, and serving up- 

 ward of a hundred mares yearly, that the stock, although tolerably promising 

 in their early age, shot up into lank, weakly, awkward, leggy, good-for-nothing 

 creatures, to the entire ruin of the horse's character as a sire — until some gen- 

 tleman, aware of the cause, took pains to explain it, proving the correctness of 

 their statements by reference to the first of the horse's get, produced under a 

 proper system of breeding, and which were then ui their prime, and among the 

 best horses in England. 

 (454) 



