FOOD. 201 



eight feet high. The faggots will be all the better 

 for the exposure to the air during a summer ; and 

 as horses cannot see through a fence of this sort, 

 they will never attempt to break through it. 



Food. — The proper feeding of hunters has much 

 to do with their condition, and likewise with their 

 remaining sound. Food should be proportioned to 

 work, and it should also be of the very best qua- 

 lity. Hay that has been much heated in the stack 

 is above all things to be avoided, as, from its pow- 

 erful diuretic properties, it debilitates, and creates 

 thirst ; and mow-burnt or heated oats are equally 

 productive of mischief. Eight or ten pounds of 

 hay per day are as much as any hunter should eat, 

 and that which is produced on dry upland ground is 

 best. Indeed, we are far from thinking that rich 

 meadow hay, finely scented as it is, and apparently 

 so full of nourishment, is fitted for any description 

 of horse that is required to go fast, and we are quite 

 certain that thousands of horses are destroyed an- 

 nually by the efi'ects of hay and water. The latter 

 cannot be too soft, and when not so, it should be 

 kept in the stable some days previous to use, and 

 with a small portion of bran in it. Mr. Percival 

 mentions forty-nine horses being killed in one stud 

 in France, by a disease produced by eating bad hay 

 and oats. 



But nothing puts the groom's knowledge of the 

 art of feeding hunters more to the test, than the 

 management of such as are either naturally thick- 

 winded, or afflicted with chronic coui^h ; and as in 



