48 PINK AND SCARLET 



stations where proper supervision is maintained the 

 quaHty of the forage is good enough for horses in 

 ordinary work, though it would not, as a rule, do 

 for hunters which are really wanted "to go." 



In Ireland the cost of actual keep is a good deal 

 lower than that given in the estimate above, but so 

 also is the quality of both hay and oats. 



Wherever the horse is kept, and whoever the 

 forage is obtained from, every care must be taken 

 to prevent waste, robbery, and over-feeding. A few 

 shillings invested in a small spring balance weighing 

 machine will be well spent, and the hay, etc. should 

 frequently be weighed. Each truss is supposed to 

 weigh fifty-six pounds; it is not, however, possible for 

 the man who cuts them out of the stack to always 

 do so to a pound or two, but what must be looked 

 out for is that some are over as well as under weight, 

 so that the average may be right. 



Experience provides a case of every truss of 

 several tons of hay which were bought direct from 

 a big farmer being under weight, some of them so 

 much as six or seven pounds. The excuse made 

 was, " I'm very sorry that the man who cut them 

 out should have made such a mistake." The na- 

 tural retort was, " It's very odd that he should have 

 always made it on the right side for you ; " and the 

 action taken was to go elsewhere for hay in future ! 



Another preventive of robbery, or rather of 

 peculation, is to keep a book in which the number 

 of horses kept, and the amount of forage used, each 

 month is entered. Any noticeable difference in the 



