DENTITION AND DIET. 139 



the same. It is the young and growing animal that requires our 

 greatest attention. If our readers desire to raise colts that shall 

 remunerate them for the trouble and expense incurred, they must 

 feed the same, during their minority, with a liberal hand. Any 

 neglect at this period can never be made up in after life. The 

 subject will always remain lank and lean — living monuments of 

 their master's folly or ignorance, as the case may be. In addition 

 to the food required for the colt's growth, we must also furnish 

 enough to supply the waste incurred by expenditure of muscular 

 power. We all know that the young are very active and playful. 

 Every muscular movement involves an expenditure of vital force, 

 and thus exhausts the system; therefore, in view of developing 

 their full proportions, and promoting the integrity of the living 

 mechanism, they must have nutritious food, and plenty of it. They 

 are not, however, to have a large quantity at a time, but little and 

 often. Their stomach is small, not larger than that of a man's. 

 Should it be overdistended with innutritious food, the organs of 

 respiration and circulation become embarrassed, and the blood 

 loaded with carbon. They require food often, because the diges- 

 tive organs are very active, and soon dispose of an ordinary meal. 

 Then comes the sensation of hunger, which every one knows is 

 hard to bear. 



The climate or temperature of the surrounding atmosphere has a 

 wonderful effect on the animal machine. Let two horses be located 

 in different stables, one of which shall be, like "Jack Straw's' 

 house neither wind-tight nor water-proof; the other built on 

 tne air-tight principle. The occupant of the former will require 

 more food than he of the latter, because cold air has a depressing 

 influence on the body, exhausting superficial heat. Our readers 

 are probably aware that if a hot brick be placed in contact with 

 a cold one, the caloric radiated from the first is absorbed by the 

 latter, until a sort of equilibrium be established. The same is 

 true as regards the body of a horse. He being in an atmosphere 

 many degrees less than that of his own body, gives off the heat 

 of the same to the surrounding medium. The heat thus given 

 off has to be replaced by food, which is the combustible material. 

 But it often happens that the digestive organs are deranged, in- 

 capable of assimilating a sufficiency of carbonaceous material to 

 maintain even the normal temperature of the body. The conse- 

 yir V> .< Jre , loss of flesh and health. On the other hand, a tat 



