32 ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTION. 



treatment were sent. The personnel for attendance was very 

 small comparatively with hospitals. Grazing had to be supple- 

 mented by a ration of grain and hay, in accordance with the 

 season, but there were enough pastures to allow of their being 

 rested for a while and the grass to grow after being eaten down. 

 The free life at pasture during summer was excellent for the 

 animals on the whole. It has, however, certain drawbacks. 

 With large mobs of horses and much dung (animals at grass 

 always produce a large amount of dung) flies are troublesome. 

 Animals huddle together to get away from these pests, they do 

 not feed during the heat of the day, preferring to congregate 

 under trees. Hard ground of smnmer is bad for the lame, and 

 as a rule heavy draught horses never do very w"ell at grass. 

 Mules are much more concerned with what is going on in 

 various other pastures, and the kraal system is the best for them. 

 We attempted to keep horses on pasture at Gournaj- during 

 the winter in the same manner as ^^•as practised at Lathrop in 

 the U.S.A. with Remounts during the Boer War, but in spite 

 of the well-sheltered fields, the experiment was a hopeless 

 failure and had to be abandoned. The winter of 1914-15 was. 

 extremely wet, and the mire was too severe for debilitated 

 horses. Moreover it was difficult to get the necessary food into 

 the sodden undrained pastures. Impoverished animals cannot 

 stand inclement weather : the only practical way of managing, 

 them, during winter at least, is to bring them into coyer. 

 , On the whole, therefore, the most satisfactory form of 

 Convalescent Horse Depot is an arrangement of corrals or 

 enclosures, and as there was no grass land available on the 

 Northern L. of C. in France, it was on this plan that the- 

 Convalescent Horse Depots in that area was constructed. They 

 were organised on a basis of 1200 animals. One was laid out. 

 in the form of " pawnbrokers balls," each block or ball being 

 surrounded by an exercising track, and divided into enclosures 

 50 yards by 40 yards with an alley way down the centre for a 

 Decauville railway for carrying forage, removal of dung, etc. 

 The enclosures were for 50 horses or mules each, and each was 

 provided with a water trough. Stabling with pucca floors was 

 erected on two sides of the enclosures. Another Depot was 

 rectangular, with enclosures 100 yards b}- 50 yards, each for 10(> 



