MILK RATION FOR COLT. 363 



Full rations of appropriate food will give it the habit of 

 strong and rapid growth, which is easily continued after 

 weaning; but, on the other hand, deficient nourishment 

 will not only contract its present growth, but also contract 

 its powers of digestion so as to incapacitate it for using 

 sufficient food to give full growth after weaning. The 

 vigorous growth of a colt while young is too important 

 to be neglected on any pretext, such as that " whip-cord 

 muscle and solid bone must be grown very slowly that the 

 fibres may become perfect," etc. There is a vast amount 

 of such humbug afloat. Slow growth presupposes scanty 

 food; does insufficient nutrition produce the most perfect 

 development ? Taking a lesson from tree growth : How 

 does the fibre of the slow-growing, large, forest hickory 

 compare with that of the rapid, open field, second-growth 

 hickory the grain of the latter being twice or thrice the 

 thickness of the former ? Will the expert, who wants an 

 ax-helve or spokes for a trotting sulky, choose the slow- 

 growing hickory in preference to the rapid second-growth? 

 The same rule will hold between two colts, the one scantily 

 and the other abundantly fed. But as in this case of 

 the rapidly-growing hickory, we wish it seasoned to give us 

 the full force of its springy fibre; so likewise the rapidly- 

 growing colt must have a time of seasoning to perfect, by 

 temperate use and intelligent training, its wonderful power 

 of muscular endurance. It seems this foolish prejudice 

 against good feeding for colts has arisen from the fact that 

 high feeding and fattening have been considered synony- 

 mous. Such food as would produce fat rather than muscle 

 cannot be too strongly condemned. 



MILK KATION FOR COLT. 



If the dam yields too little milk to produce vigorous 

 growth in the colt, it should be increased by food of as 

 nearly the same composition as may be. This is nearly 



