FATTENING. 63 



FATTENING. 



To fatten a horse in a short space of time, has 

 generally been considered a very great art, and at- 

 tended with much difficulty. Some authors are of 

 opinion, it is necessary for a horse to swallow a certain 

 quantity of medicine to produce the desired effect ; 

 while others rely on an uncommon or peculiar kind of 

 food ; but experience has proved that both opinions 

 are erroneous, and that the few simples which I shall 

 here recommend, together with good rubbing and a 

 particular manner of feeding, will accomplish the fat- 

 tening of a horse that is not a garran or extremely 

 poor, within three or four weeks. After your stable 

 is prepared, (as directed in pages 46 and 47,) provide a 

 plenty of good sweet corn, hommony, oats, bran, and 

 fodder ; also a sufficient quantity of straw to keep him 

 with a comfortable and clean bed; then notice the 

 condition of the animal, for the purpose of bleeding in 

 the neck. Should he be very poor, take from him only 

 one quart of blood ; if in tolerable plight, two quarts 

 repeating the bleeding at the expiration of every 

 eight or ten days, until he is fat. Take of flaxseed 

 one pint, boil it to a strong tea of one quart ; take oi 

 powdered brimstone, one table spoonful ; salt-petre, 

 one tea spoonful ; of bran, one and a half gallons ; mix 

 them all together, scalding the bran with the tea, form- 

 ing a mash; which may be given every eight days : 

 not permitting the horse to drink cold water for eight 

 or ten hours afterwards. Take of asafcetida (which 

 can be procured from any apothecary's shop) half an 

 ounce ; wrap it in a clean linen rag, and nail it in the 

 bottom of the manger where the animal is fed; at 

 first the horse will eat unwillingly where it is placed, 

 but in a few days he will grow remarkably fond of it. 

 7 



