998 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



and rams, to a few eminent breeders. These stallions, which are shown at the different towns in the 

 vicinity, sometimes sent to be exhibited at a considerable distance, are let out for the whole season, or 

 sold to stallion men, or kept by the breeder himself, for covering such mares as may be offered, at a cer. 

 fain price per head ; and this varies according to the estimation in which the horse is held, and sometimes 

 according as the mare has more or less of what is called blood. For farm mares, the charge for covering 

 by a stallion of the same kind is commonly about a guinea, with half-a-crown to the groom ; and it is a 

 common practice in the NcAth, to agree for a lower rate if the mare does not prove with foal ; sometimes 

 nothing more is paid in that case than the allowance to the groom. 



6631. In choosing the parents, or stallion and mare, regard must be had to the kind of stock desired to 

 be bred. Whatever may be the particular purpose of the breed, a stallion ought first to possess all the gene- 

 ral properties of a good horse, and next the characteristic criteria of the desired stock. The produc?, 

 whether a male or female, much more frequently acquires and retains the form, make, marks, and dis- 

 position of the sire than the dam. On this account, stallions with the least appearance of disease, blemish, 

 or bodily defect of any kind, where there is the slightest probability of its being transmittted to the off- 

 spring, should be rejected as improper. And it is even considered by some necessary to descend to the 

 minutiffi of symmetry in the head, neck, shoulder, forehead, ribs, back, loins, joints, and pasterns, attend- 

 ing even to a strict uniformity in the form, make, and texture of the hoofs : it is also of importance to 

 ascertain the temper and disposition of both sire and dam, in order to avoid the procreation of vices or 

 imperfections. But provided either parents be free frora^hereditary infirmities, disorders which arise from 

 accident are of no consequence. 



6632. The general proverties required in a breeding mare, are a good shape, a gentle disposition, a large 

 carcase conformably to ner height, and belly well let down ; she must be perfectly free from all sorts of 

 blemishes and defects. The size, frame, bone, strength, and blood, will of course be regulated by the pur- 

 poses of the breeder. 



6633. The mare which is intended to mipphj draught colts should, according to the author of the Si/, 

 nopsis of Husbandry, be large-limbed, close-jointed, short-docked, wide-chested, home-ribbed, with a 

 capacious body ; her" eyes good, and her nostrils large and open ; in disposition she ought to he gentle and 

 tractable; of a constitution healthy and vigorous, free from any blemishes either hereditary or acquired. 

 The horse should be bold and spirited, well made, and of a kindly disposition ; his constitution should be 

 strong, his temper good, and, in short, neither in mind or body ought he to be contaminated with vices or 

 disease of any kind ; since on the good qualities and strength of constitution in the sire and the dam de- 

 pends, in a great measure, the future welfare of the colt. 



663k The age at which horses should be alloivcd to breed is not determined by uniform practice ; and is 

 made to depend, in some measure, on the degree of maturity, which, in animals of the same species, is 

 more or less early, according to breed and feeding. Yet it would seem, in general, to be an improper prac- 

 tice to allow animals of any kind to propagate, while they are themselves in a raw unformed state, and 

 require all the nutriment which their food affords, for raising them to the ordinary size of the variety to 

 which they belong. It may, therefore, be seldom advisable to employ the stallion till he is about four 

 years old, or the mare till she is a year older, and if the stallion be five also it is better, and still more so 

 if he be six or seven. But the greater number of mares left for breeding are not very young ; being in 

 many cases not allowed to bring foals till they are in the decline of life, or otherwise unable to bear their 

 full share in rural labour. 



G6o5. Three months brfore a stallion is sexualli/ employed, he sjiould be fed with sound oats, peas, or beans, 

 or with coarse bread, and a little hay, but a good quantity of wheat straw ; he should be watered regu- 

 larly, and have long continued walking exercise every day, but he should not be over-heated. If he be 

 not prepared and put in condition, the colts will be likely to be weakly, and the horse himself will become 

 injured, begetting humours, or becoming broken-winded. If he be put to too many mares, he will not 

 last long ; his mane and tail will begin to fall off" through weakness, and it will be difficult to get up his 

 flesh again by the next year. The number of marcs should be proportioned to his strength, and twelve, 

 fifteen, or at the most twenty, are as many as a horse will well serve for in a season. This number, indeed, 

 is thought by many too few, and in Suffolk, we are informed on the best authority, the stallions serve from 

 fifty to seventy, and even eighty mares in a season. 



6&^. The usual season for the generative process is from the beginning of April to the beginning of 

 July. The month of June is considered the best season in this country ; although from the middle to the 

 end of May is more approved of on the Continent, particularly in Normandy, where the farmers devote 

 much of their attention to this branch of husbandry; and in which, especially in regard to useful farm 

 horses, they have succeeded, perhaps, beyond those in any other part of Europe. This difference, as to 

 the time when a mare should be allowed to take the horse, in the different countries, is easily reconcile- 

 able : a mare goes eleven months and a few days with foal ; and the great object with all farmers, where 

 practicable, is to have her covered at such a period as to ensure abundance of grass, and the return of 

 warm and comfortable weather at the period of foaling. An early colt is always to be preferred to one 

 that falls late in the season. It is generally understood, and is an opinion that is believed to be well 

 founded, that a mare may be covered on the ninth day after she has foaled, with a greater degree of suc- 

 cess than at any other period. This practice is, of course, often followed; but in such cases the mare 

 ought, Donaldson thinks, to be fed in an extraordinary manner, otherwise it is impossible she can do jus- 

 tice to her present and her future foal. But modern farmers would probably, he says, come nearer 

 their purpose, were they to follow the example of the Romans, and content themselves with one foal in 

 the two years. 



6637. At the season of parturition, there should be a suitable supply of food for the mother and young. The 

 time of covering mares ought, therefore, to be partly regulated by a due regard to this circumstance, and 

 maybe earlier in the south than in the north, where grass, the most desirable food both for the dam and 

 foal, does not come so early by a month or six weeks. In Scotland, it is not advantageous to have mares 

 to drop their foals sooner than the middle of April ; and as the period of gestation is about eleven months, 

 they are usually covered in May, or early in June. But if mares are intended to bring a foal every year, 

 they should be covered from the ninth to the eleventh day after foaling, whatever may be the time ; and 

 the horse shonld be brought to them again nine or eighteen days afterwards. 



6638. In breeding horses on a large scale it is easy to contrive so that all the foals may be brought forth 

 at a time when there is plenty of grass. About the end of May the mares are to be put into an enclosure 

 capable of feeding them as long as the stallion is to be with them, or that they are in season. In this 

 enclosure all the mares are to be put together, as well those which are barren as others. The stallion's 

 hind shoes are to be taken off, but the fore shoes should be left, or tips put on to preserve his feet ; then 

 lead him forth, and let him cover a mare twice in hand, to render him more tame and gentle. After this 

 take off the bridle and turn him loose among the rest, where he will become familiar with them, and not 

 one of them will be horsed but when they are in season. There should be a little lodge built up in some 

 part of the enclosure, and peas, beans, oats, bread, and other good foot!, put into the manger in it, that 

 the horse may retire into it in the scorching heats, and eat what he likes best. He must be thus enter- 

 tained during the whole time he is with the mares, which is to be about six or seven weeks. Mares that 

 are very fat and gross do not hold well; but those which are moderately fat conceive with the greate&t 

 success and ease. 



6639. To bring a mare in season, it is a common thing to give her a quart of hemp-seed, or twice that 

 quantity, night and morning for eight days before she is brought to the horse. If she refuse it alone, it may 

 be mixed with beans or oats, and will go down ; and if the stallion eat of it, it will force him also; but 

 it nrust be remembered that these provocatives are unnatural, and often defeat their own purposes. They 



