114 DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 



as possible. Be careful to keep the horse in a healthy 

 state. Keep him well supplied with salt. Occasionally 

 mix with the salt five parts of wood ashes, or give ashes 

 in his water. Give occasionally a table spoonful of lime 

 with his food. Give him, once a week, a little sage with 

 his fodder. 



The eggs or nits may be scraped off the horse with a 

 knife. By applying a warm, moist rag to them, they 

 will soon hatch and be destroyed, if the horse be kept 

 from taking them on his tongue. Apply grease or oil to 

 the eggs, and it will destroy them 5 and it is said it will 

 prevent the fly depositing any more ; but to effect this, 

 it should be repeated frequently. 



Feed the horse occasionally with the heads of rye ; 

 this cuts out and carries off the grubs. If more conve- 

 nient, the rye may be fed in the sheaf. J. L. Smith, 

 Esq., an extensive dealer in horses, at the south, recom- 

 mends this very highly. Tobacco leaves, cut fine, or 

 coarse horse-hair, mixed with a horse's provender, will 

 prevent the bots and worms collecting in the maw. and 

 will often kill them. But as hair is indigestible, it 

 should be avoided. A farmer of much experience says 

 that he never knew a horse to be troubled with bots that 

 was fed with a few raw potatoes every week. For 

 other preventives, use some of the mild remedies recom- 

 mended. 



MR. SCOTT'S VIEWS. 



In the Indiana Farmer, S. J. Scott makes the follow- 

 ing observations : — 



1. Wild horses, in a state of nature, never die of bots. 



2. Domestic horses that run at large never die of 

 bots. 



3. Horses whose food is> not changed, or stinted, and 

 who are not over-heated, never die of bots. 



4. The bot worm does not eat through the stomach, 

 but is invariably found attached to the stomach of the 

 horse, by its tail, and goes through tail foremost. 



5. Bots are most apt to hurt a horse in the spring and 

 fall, or soon after changing he food from d f to green, 

 and the reverse. 



