558 A HISTOEY OP THE PERCHERON HORSE 



' ' For roughage we place mixed clover and timothy 

 hay in the mangers for the mares and foals. We 

 also place some bright alfalfa hay in a separate place 

 where the foals have access to it. Both mares and 

 foals are allowed all the hay they will eat, but when 

 they are on good pasture they do not utilize very 

 large amounts. Our grain ration is the same for the 

 mares and foals, and consists of bran and oats mixed 

 in the proportion of 2 bushels of oats to 1 of bran. 

 This is mixed and fed dry. The mares are allowed 

 a moderate ration of this — about a half-pound per 

 100 pounds of live weight. A mare weighing 1,600 

 pounds will receive about 8 pounds of the grain 

 ration per day. This is divided into two feeds, morn- 

 ing and evening. The foals are allowed all of this 

 grain mixttire that they will eat up at two feeds 

 per day, although we take the precaution to see that 

 they are not given enough to cause them to leave 

 any grain in their feedboxes from one feed to the 

 next. 



"Both the mares and foals are turned out about 

 4:30 or 5 o'clock in the evening, and run on blue- 

 grass pasture all night, being talien in again in the 

 morning. This general policy is continued through- 

 out the entire summer. The bam doors are closed 

 in the daytime, and the barn is partially darkened, 

 so that the flies cause little trouble. 



' ' We do not work mares that are nursing foals, as 

 we usually have enough dry mares or young horses 

 to do our farm work. We believe that we get better 

 results with the foals by not requiring the mares 

 that are nursing them to do anything while they 

 are raising their offspring. Our policy of giving 

 some grain to the mares while they are nursing foals 

 may be objected to by some, but we have found 

 that it increases the milk flow and contributes ma- 



