194 STABLE ECONOMY. 



ing too scarce and valuable an article for the Tiboos to spare 

 them. They drink it both sweet and sour ; and animals in 

 higher condition I scarcely ever saw."* 



Mare's Milk. — For the first six months of the young horse's 

 life, his principal food is mare's milk. He begins to eat much 

 sooner, but few are entirely weaned before this time. Farm 

 mares are usually put to gentle work two or three weeks after 

 parturition. Her work should be moderate, and her diet sub- 

 stantial. She is often treated as if work could have no in- 

 fluence on the milk. When she has much to do, the milk is 

 neither good nor abundant, and the foal is half-starved. The 

 foal is sometimes permitted to follow his dam to the field, 

 where he may occasionally suckle her. This renders the 

 foal familiar, and at an early age reconciles him to subjection, 

 and it prevents engorgement of the udder. Bad weather, or 

 the nature of the mare's work, may forbid the practice. When 

 the mare comes home, the foal is put to suck her. In some 

 places, the milk is previously stripped on to the ground, and 

 the udder bathed with cold water, or vinegar and water. This 

 is not necessary. It is supposed that the milk is injured and 

 pernicious when the mare is overheated ; but, in the first 

 place, her v/ork should never be so severe as to overheat her ; 

 and, in the second, the milk is not apparently aUered when 

 she is. Hard work will diminish the quantity of milk, and 

 render it less nutritious, but it will do no more. [Hard work 

 diminishes the carbonaceous portion of the food ; it contains 

 less sugar of milk and less oil.] If the foal be withheld till 

 the udder be gorged and distended, a little inflammation will 

 take place, and the milk will be bad. In such case it is 

 proper to draw off" a portion before the foal is put to it ; and it 

 may also be proper to bathe the udder with cold water. But 

 to empty it or to bathe it merely because the mare has been 

 perspiring, is absurd ; and to neglect both mare and foal till 

 the udder needs such treatment, betrays very bad manage- 

 ment. 



Sometimes a mare, especially with her first foal, will not 

 permit sucking. She requires to be held, to have the udder 

 rubbed with the hand and stripped. Hold her by the head 

 and keep her steady till the foal is satisfied. Do so five or 

 six times a day. On the third day, or thereabouts, she usually 

 begins to perform her duty without interference. In general, 

 the mare is merely restless ; she will not stand quiet till the 

 foal suckles her ; but sometimes she is ill-natured or vicious. 



• Denham's Travels in Africa. 



