AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 467 



horse of 1,000 to 1,100 pounds weight. If too small they get 

 poor and cannot draw a stage; if too large they ruin their feet, 

 and their shoulders grow stiff" and shrink. The principal objec- 

 tion to large horses is not so much the increased amount of food 

 required, as the fact that they are soon used up by Avear. They 

 would prefer for feed a mixture of half corn and half oats, if it 

 were not more expensive. 



Horses do not keep fat so well on oats alone if at hard labor, as 

 on corn meal or a mixture of the two. 



Straw is best for bedding. If salt hay is used the horses eat it, 

 as not more than a bag of 200 pounds of salt is used in three 

 months. Glauber salt is allowed occasionally as a laxative in 

 the spring of the year, and the animals eat it voraciously. If 

 corn is too new, it is mixed with an equal weight of rye bran, 

 which prevents scouring. Jersey yellow corn is best; horses like 

 it best. 



The hay is all cut, mixed with the meal and fed moist. No 

 difference is made between day and night work. The travel is 

 continuous, except in warm weather, when it is sometimes divi- 

 ded and an interval of rest allowed In cold weather the horses 

 are watered four times a day in the stable and not at all on the 

 road. In Avarm weather four times a day in the stables, and are 

 allowed a sip on the middle of the route. The amount that the 

 company exact of each horse is all that he can do. In the worst 

 of the traveling they fed450«bags per week of meal, of lOO 

 pounds each. They now feed 400. The horses are not allowed 

 to drink when warm. If allowed to do so, it founders them. 

 In warm weather a bed of saw dust is prepared for them to roll 

 in. Number of horses, 335. Speed varies, but is about four 

 miles an hour. Horses eat more in cold weather than in warm, 

 but the difference cannot be exactly determined. The company 

 are dead opposed to the Russ pavement; had rather have cobble 

 stone. 



Dr. Waterbury introduced a letter from Dr. A. Bigelow, of 

 Attica, Indiana, from whicli the following is an extract : 



" I am a great lover of horses — generally keep good ones, and 

 do some fast driving in my business, and notice its effect upon 

 horses; and having used them five years in Vermont, and ten 

 here, I will give you the result of my, observation. Vermont 

 horses, like its inhabitants, are almost invariably raised on plain 

 diet, but if the former arrive at maturity without having the 

 " heaves," and the latter consumption, they can beat the world 



