290 Feeds and Feeding. 



will be formed, which the foal will suck promptly. Let him have 

 half a teacup full every hour at first. It is a bothersome chore, but 

 it must be done." (389) Lime water is helpful at all times, and 

 castor oil may be used in checking the scours which so frequently 

 trouble hand-fed foals. The quantity of diluted milk should be in- 

 creased with the growing needs of the animal, and gradually full 

 milk substituted. Gruels made by boiling peas and beans and re- 

 moving the skins by passing the pulp thru a sieve are helpful, as is 

 the jelly made by boiling linseed oil meal. Cooked wheat middlings 

 or low-grade flour may also be used. As Johnstone says: "The 

 rearing of a motherless foal is mostly in the man or woman who 

 essays the job." 



458. Feeding cow's milk. — Cow's milk may be used with advan- 

 tage in feeding weak foals and those suffering from ailments. The 

 foal may be taught to drink milk by pouring it upon meal. The 

 young thing readily eats the moistened feed, and by tipping the pan 

 it soon learns to drink the milk. At the Iowa Station^ Wilson and 

 Curtiss successfully fed whole milk and later separator skim milk to 

 imported Percheron, Shire, and French-Coach weanling fillies shortly 

 after their arrival from abroad and while out of condition. In 

 changing from whole to separator skim milk the amount was reduced 

 for a day or two to prevent scouring. Ten lbs. of separator skim 

 milk w^as found equal to 1 lb. of grain. Grattan^ reports favorably 

 on the use of skim milk for foals, even when the milk is sour or lob- 

 bered. MacNeilage^ objects to the use of cow's milk for foals, claim- 

 ing "no better means of manufacturing wind-suckers was ever de- 

 vised, and it is rare that yearlings so brought out count for much 

 as 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds" — a timely warning against the too 

 free use of this food. (301-2) 



459. Weaning the foal. — Weaning foals when 5 or 6 months old 

 is not difficult if the preliminaries have been properly carried out. 

 We follow Splan* again : ' ' Now we put on the halters and keep them 

 on, leading the foals more or less w^hile weaning them. Leave them 

 in their boxes, 2 or 3 together, several days, and have the boxes open 

 into a nice grass paddock. Let them run out and in, give them oats 

 mixed with bran and sorghum cut up fine, and in a few days more 

 turn them out in the fields away from their dams, where there is 

 plenty of grass and water, and a large trough with feed in it con- 

 stantly. They have been in the habit of taking milk a great many 



1 Bui. 18. ^ Trans. Highl. and Agrl. Soc, 1890, p. 152. 



= Breeder 's Gaz., 6, 1884, p. 796. * Life with the Trotters. 



