360 STABLE ECONOMY. 



eight, is tlie usual load hereabouts, all placed on two 



'to 



wheels 



The preparation for carting is very simple. The horse is 

 put at once to work ; for the first ten or fourteen days he does 

 only half work, afterward he does a little more every day, or 

 every other day, till he is fully conditioned. 



Ploughing. — " The following has been ascertained to be 

 the quantity of land ploughed, and the ground gone over by a 

 team working nine hours : — 



" The distance travelled at the slow pace, was twelve 

 miles, at the quicker it was sixteen miles."* 



REPOSE. 



In another place I have stated the immediate effects of 

 muscular exertion. Fatigue, the result of exertion, consists 

 in a particular state of the muscles, the joints, the sinews, and 

 some other parts. Action exhausts the muscles, consumes 

 the blood, the joint-oil, and other fluids connected with mo- 

 tion. Maintained for a certain time, action also inflames the 

 muscles, the sinews, and the joints. During repose, these 

 parts should be partly or entirely restored to that condition 

 which is most favorable to exertion. But if the rest be dis- 

 turbed, or its proper duration abridged, the consequences are 

 more serious than people generally imagine. The loss of 

 one night's rest renders the horse unfit for work next day. 

 There are many cases, however, in which the horse is almost 

 never permitted to enjoy complete repose. He is frequently 

 compelled to stand when he ought to be lying.- The conse- 

 quences are precisely the same as those arising from excess 

 of work. 



The horse does not sleep much, perhaps little more than 

 four or five hours out of the twenty-four. He can rest, how- 

 ever, pretty well when he is standing, and still better when 

 he is lying, though he should not sleep. 



By a peculiar arrangement in the horse's limbs, heis able 

 to obtain more rest while standing than any animal I know 

 of; yet, without recubation, his repose is never completed. 

 He may be kept always on his feet, yet he never works so 



* Complete Grazier, p. 198. 



