Management of Farm-Horses. 
263 
no fact in animal chemistry better established than this, that the 
principal use of the non-nitrogenized or carbonaceous part of food, 
is to furnish a supply of carbon, which, uniting with the oxygen 
of the atmosphere in the lungs, gives out heat, as in ordinary 
combustion, and thus serves to keep the animal temperature above 
that of surrounding objects. It is therefore a very costly metliod 
of procuring a certain amount of animal heat, when sucii heat or 
a good portion of it can be retained by keeping an animal in a 
comfortable stable. Besides which, the effect of turning a horse 
into the open air is to cause him to have a long thick coat, this 
being one of Nature's resources to counteract the effect of cold. 
When a horse is worked with such an external covering, he sweats 
readily and profusely in consequence, and is faint and weak after 
very little exertion. Thus in whatever way we look at the ques- 
tion, whether theoretically or practically, "turning out" is 
decidedly objectionable in every respect. With regard, however, 
to the turning of our horses out during the three or four warmest 
months of the year, many of the foregoing objections do not 
apply. For my own part I have been in the habit, after the warm 
weatlier has thoroughly set in, and the hay has been made and 
carried from the pastures, to turn out my cart-horses during the 
night, and I have never seen other than benefit arising from the 
practice. 
Its advantages are, that much litter has been thereby saved, as 
well as considerable labour in carting green food or hay to the 
stable. The coolness of the pastures during the night as compared 
to the heated stables is very conducive to health ; and, indeed, 
I have generally found that the horses have gained flesh during 
this period. 
One of the principal objections to this practice is, that the 
dung is likely to be dissipated, and lost. This, however, may 
readily be avoided by employing a lad with a wheelbarrow and 
shovel, to collect the droppings from time to time into a heap, to 
be afterwards mixed with ashes or earth, to be laid out in the 
pasture at a more suitable period of the year. Tfiis mode 
should also be followed with regard to the dung of cattle ; the 
expense is trivial, and is far more than compensated by the ad- 
vantages that attend the saving of the herbage from the too 
powerful action of the dung, and its more economical use when 
collected together. 
Another objection to the practice is, that horses are more likely 
to get kicked or otherwise injured by being thus turned out. This 
certainly is of some weight, and is only to be obviated in a measure 
by abstaining from turning out those horses that are at all viciously 
disposed. 
The practice of turning out during the nights of summer 
