avery's own farrier. 273 



Is it too much to say that more than one half of all 

 the diseases of the horse arise in the first place from bad 

 management, or from want of good management: from 

 an improper system of feeding, over medicating, from 

 ill-constructed, unventilated and filthy stabling, or from 

 injudicious driving and neglect of cleaning, and from an 

 untimely or improper use of the blanket? To learn my 

 views of which you have only to turn and read that which 

 I have written on this point. 



Every proprietor of a stable should be capable of 

 managing all ordinary complaints, within his own stable; 

 but as this is not always the case, the horse is often left 

 to the mercy of some fellow who really knows nothing 

 more about the structure and wants of him, than he does 

 about the model of an engine, or the economy of an em- 

 pire. And yet he trumps loudly and has a thousand and 

 one infallible remedies for almost every disease, the 

 names of which he does not know, neither their causes, 

 origin, or operation on the system; and if he knows 

 their names, he is entirely incapable of distinguishing 

 one from another. He applies, hap-hazard, these hot 

 drugs, totally ignorant of their effect on the system 

 generally, or on the particular disease, and nine times 

 out often he may apply them wrong; and so aggravate 

 ten fold, the disease which he pretends to be able to 

 cure. 



To remedy the above evil, I would recommend that 

 every such person should be obliged to swallow one- 

 fourth the quantity of the same kind of medicine that he 

 is going to give the horse, whether it injured the horse 

 or not. When you find one that is willing to stand this 



