360 HOESE POETEAITUEE. 



PRECEPTOR. As a preventive, I would prefer grazing 

 alone, but when the horse has become burnt, I would rather 

 combine it with sago. When the system has become 

 feverish the sago gruels, taking the place of water alone, 

 have always proved beneficial with me. Yet if I had to 

 forego the use of sago or green food, I would not hesitate 

 an instant in discarding the first, and give the latter the 

 preference over everything else, as an adjunct to correct 

 the injuries arising from fast work, and for the diet of 

 horses in training. If a horse is allowed to graze for half 

 an hour, twice or three times a week, and his work and 

 food are judiciously given, there will ve.ry seldom be any 

 necessity for demulcent drinks, excepting when sweating, 

 or after giving extra work, as in a trial qr race. The 

 succulent herbage will do away with the necessity for 

 giving so many bran-mashes, which I do not regard with 

 the favor that many do. I use them, but not with the 

 frequency of many of my aquaintances, trusting to the more 

 natural food, which has never failed me yet in doing what 

 I expected. It will not do to give it at particular stages 

 of the training, as there are times when one requires the 

 system to be " keyed up " to the highest tone. Then only 

 the most nutritious food is admissible. An eminent 

 veterinary writer remarks of green food, that "wounds 

 heal more kindly, inflammatory diseases are not so fatal, 

 and chronic diseases frequently abate, or they entirely 

 disappear under the use of grass. The horse, however, is 

 always soft when fed much on green food. He sweats a 

 great deal, and is soon exhausted with his work." Our 

 aim, therefore, should be to feed enough and at proper 

 times to obtain the benefit of its medicinal properties, 

 without going far enough to debilitate the animal by too 

 free and frequent a use. 



PUPIL. You would advise grazing, rather than cutting 

 the grass and conveying it into the stall ? 



