264 WATER FARCY. 
requires immediate change. The work is too heavy; pecuniary loss will 
soon follow, if the system be not amended; true is it, the writer has 
known men rated “good” in the world’s report, and who were very 
“professing Christians” in their own esteem; he has known these men 
never to give more than ten pounds for a horse, and, at the time of pur- 
chase, the premeditated sin was to work out the life over which money 
had established authority. It is the most offensive feature of what is 
termed modern civilization that, rarely as individuals, never as a society, 
do mankind entertain the slightest sympathy for the animals by which 
they are surrounded. Most men are only eager for the services of the 
horse; they do not regard its ailments with the smallest feeling; they 
seek a veterinary surgeon merely to restore their animal to labor, and 
care only for a fellow-creature’s sufferings as these disable it from toil- 
ing for their profit. 
Water farcy is, however, an admonition which all men should under- 
stand; the horse, when thus attacked, announces that farcy hovers over 
the stable. Let the work of the team be made less prolonged and less 
exhausting; let the provender be improved. Green food is no sufficient 
sustenance for a working horse; it may fill the stomach, but it brings 
down the belly, and it impoverishes the blood. The team may not travel 
fast, but they are out for many hours; generally they cover more ground 
than horses of a quicker pace; they also pull weights before which none 
but a cart-house would be harnessed. On the appearance of water farcy, 
therefore, let the distances be shortened and the loads lightened. 
Then, for remedial measures, let the diet be nourishing, the bed cleanly, 
the house drained and airy. As for exercise, let the horse, so soon as it 
can bear the motion, be gently led out morning, noon, and night, for 
one hour each time. Do not turn the creature from the stable to the 
field. Grass may be the cheapest food; but it never yet did a domesti- 
cated animal good ‘to blow itself out” upon such a diet. 
As for medicine, when the limb can bear friction, let it be well and 
often hand-rubbed; the oftener and the longer the better. Every morn- 
ing saturate it with pails of cold water; wipe it dry immediately, and 
then set to work hand-rubbing the leg. This is all that is absolutely 
necessary, save that if the lameness continues longer than the first day, 
a few punctures may be made through the skin. These should be equally 
distributed, each being about three-eighths of an inch deep, and one 
inch long, so as to divide the skin but not to wound the muscles beneath. 
Through these incisions the fluid, by which the limb is distended, will 
escape. As for physic, the following ball should be given every morn- 
ing, if the proprietor can think a sick servant merits such trouble and 
expense :— 
