Covering Time. 109 



Twist, asking for more, I give a third service in the hope of 

 winding up the season satisfactorily. Here I should point 

 out that the stud groom's suspicions should be at once 

 aroused when a mare keeps ' 4 breaking ' ' so often as to be 

 practically always " in use." The use of the speculum in 

 such cases will nearly always disclose an inflamed condition 

 of the vagina and os uteri, accompanied with an acrid gleety 

 discharge quite sufficient to destroy all life in the stallion's 

 semen the moment it comes in contact with it. Even if no 

 speculum is available, the tell-tale signs round the vulva 

 and the matted hair on the underside of the tail are eloquent 

 clues to the state of the mare's generative organs. From 

 my experience of such mares, I am absolutely convinced 

 that " cross " services, third, fourth and even fifth services 

 are all unavailing in fact, are only aggravating the trouble 

 by the irritation they cause; and the nett result of all the 

 extra calls on the stallion will, in 99 cases out of 100, be a 

 barren mare the following year. In such cases the only 

 plan of campaign that offers any chance of ultimate success 

 is firmly to resolve not to cover the patient till a daily 

 irrigation of the generative organs with an antiseptic tonic 

 wash has brought a clean, healthy mucous membrane into 

 existence. The stud groom may have qualms as week after 

 week of the covering season slips quickly by with the mare 

 still uncovered, but he must make his choice between a pos- 

 sible late foal and no foal at all, plus a big waste of the 

 stallion's powers. 



THE INSEMINATOR. 



The inseminator, although a very useful instrument on 

 a stud farm, has its limitations. For one thing, when gleet 

 or leucorrhoea are present in the mare, the nature of the dis~ 

 charge is such as to be destructive of the living sperm cell of 



