426 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK in 



A filly may be served at two years old, though this is scarcely wise. 

 The best age at which to put a mare to the horse is three years old, so 

 that when she is sold in the autumn of her seventh year, the owner 

 will probably have obtained two foals,, the value of which, added to the 

 earnings of the mare as a team animal, will leave her full sale price as 

 the proprietor's profit. For a working mare, it is better to defer her 

 going to hard work until the third or fourth year, so as not to try her 

 strength too early. Mares that have no hard work may produce a foal 

 every year ; but once in two years is often enough for those who work. 

 The alliance of strong .young mares with aged and robust stallions is 

 the most certain method of obtaining a yearly production of good foals. 

 Mares that have been worked up to ten or twelve years old in towns, 

 and are required at that age for breeding purposes, seldom fulfil 

 expectations ; by the maintenance of high condition for a prolonged 

 period they are rendered prone to sterility, and, if fecundated, they 

 are apt to experience difficulties in labour. 



The period of gestation in mares is about eleven calendar months, 1 

 and the time of putting them to the horse, when the progeny is des- 

 tined for agricultural purposes, is usually in April or May. The former 

 month is preferred by many persons, from an idea that the earlier the 

 foals are dropped in the ensuing spring, the better chance they will 

 have of thriving, in consequence of being suckled longer before it 

 becomes necessary to wean them, though when they are dropped at 

 this season, it is often so cold that their growth is stinted ; nor 

 is the herbage either sufficiently abundant or rich to afford the neces- 

 sary supply of milk to the dam. It is therefore an injudicious practice, 

 unless the mares are well supplied with succulent food in addition to 

 their pasture, and have also the advantage of warm sheds to run into 

 at pleasure. It is even less advisable for mares that are employed in 

 farm labour, for if they are covered early, they will drop their foals at 

 the busiest season of the year. As a matter of practice mares rarely 

 foal outside, nor are they turned out until there is sufficient food. 

 The month of May is the preferable time, for the mares will then foal 

 after the spring sowing, at a period when there will be grass, and, soon 

 afterwards, winter tares for their support, with time for them to rest 

 before their services will be again needed for turnip sowing and hay 

 harvest, though this period of rest is less prolonged than was the case 

 in former days. The mares having dropped their foals, the best time 

 of putting them to the horse again is about a month afterwards, when 

 they will generally be found in season. 



If the progeny is intended for hunting or racing, the mare is, if 

 possible, covered in the early part of February or March, for as the age 



1 The result of the experiments made by M. ^Teissier on the gestation of mares is as 

 follows : 



Of 278 niares, 23 foaled between the 322nd and 330th day : mean term, 326 days. 

 227 330th 359th 344 



28 361st 419th 390 ,, 



There was, therefore, between the longest and shortest periods, an interval of ninety-seven 

 days. 



