LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 337 



to tlie oats I do not believe in feeding extra lieavy ones. 

 I think oats weighing thirty-two pounds to the bushel are 

 more easily digested, and you are less liable to overfeed 

 the horse than you are with heavier ones. Never keep your 

 feed where it is liable to absorb an^^ unpleasant odors, as 

 grain, hay and water mil very easily become affected from 

 this cause. I think horses are often affected with malaria 

 and other kindred diseases the same as the human race and 

 from the same causes. You train a horse at a race-track 

 where the trainers and grooms all have the fever and ague 

 and you will find it impossible to bring him to anything 

 like perfect condition. In housing your oats keep them in 

 a clean, dry place. Be sure that no rats or other animals 

 get a chance to run over them, because if they do and your 

 horse is the least bit delicate it will get him off his feed. 

 I have attached to my granary one of Cleaves & Co.'s pa- 

 tent grain separators, which is an invention that I think no 

 stable should be without. If you want to tind out liow 

 much refuse matter will be stored in a hundred bushels of 

 oats, lun the oats through this machine and I think you 

 will be surj^rised at the result. In loading your traps wrap 

 your sulkies with cloth so that they will not scratch or mar. 

 Have your stalls nicely bedded down with clean sawdust, 

 then back your horses into the stalls and tie them each way. 

 Have your stalls about five feet wid^e and seven or eight 

 feet in length, and store your baggage in the car where it 

 will be out of the way and not liable to cause harm should 

 your car meet with accident. Always have a car that has 

 two sets of doors on each side and never under any circum- 

 stances block up the doors, as if your car takes fire or if 

 you get tumbled down a bank you want to be able to get 

 everything out at a moment's notice. In traveling keep 

 your car cool; at the same time do not let a horse stand in 

 a draft, as it does not take long to founder a horse if he is 

 in that i)osition. Give the animals all the water they want, 

 and be careful and not overfeed them, jjarticularly if you 

 are on a long trip. The worst thing about shipping horses 



