50 



HOW TO PROCURE EARLY FOALS. 



In order to ensure March foals mares should be 

 sired in April. About the middle of February mares 

 that are intended to have foals should receive liberal 

 and generous treatment in their food, so as to 

 produce regularity in their periodical seasons of 

 conception. They should always be tried with the 

 stallion every week from the beginning of the season 

 until served. When served, they need not be tried 

 again for three weeks, at the end of which, however, 

 they should again be tried weekly all through the 

 season. Mares vary a good deal, and to guard 

 against missing them this is the safest system to 

 follow. Many breeders will not try mares until they 

 have been turned out to grass about the middle of 

 May, thus late foals and barren mares are the rule 

 rather than the exception under such conditions. 

 Mares usually come in season in the course of eight 

 or ten days after foaling, and experience proves that 

 they are more likely to conceive then than at sub- 

 sequent periods. 



EARLY AILMENTS OF FOALS. 



It is necessary to watch foals very closely during 

 the first week of their existence, in order to see that 

 their bowels are working thoroughly. Constipation is 

 dangerous, and the peculiarly tough, adhesive nature 

 of their excrement renders its evacuation both diffi- 

 cult and painful. Prompt attention is necessary, or 



