112 
ON THE MANAGEMENT OF FARM HORSES. 
be no valid reason why the best and healthiest mares on a farm 
should not be used for breeding. It is merely necessary to keep 
them in good fair condition, and not to put them to severe strains, 
and then the loss of work will not be more than a few weeks pre- 
vious to foaling, and about double or treble this period afterwards. 
The farmer may depend upon it, that if he has suitable pastures 
for rearing the colts, and selects the best and finest mares he can 
obtain, and puts them to the most desirable stallion, the breeding 
of no description of animal will pay him better than cart-colts. 
They can be reared with less risk, and will produce a quicker 
return than any other kind of horse; while they do not involve the 
expense and risk in breaking, by which so many valuable half- 
bred horses are ruined, through the ignorance, recklessness, or bad 
temper of the breaker. One fact, however, should be borne in 
mind, which is, that, if a full return is anticipated, the young animal 
should be kept tolerably well through the winter months: for if, as 
is too frequently the case, it be half starved, the loss from de- 
ficiency of symmetry , size, and strength, will be much more than 
can be compensated by any saving of food. 
In rearing young colts much care should be taken ; they should 
be handled very early and get used to the halter ; by which means, 
in case of any accident, not half the risk will be incurred in the 
treatment as when the colt is allowed to remain wild and un- 
governable. At Michaelmas the colt is usually weaned, soon after 
which he should be allowed to taste a few oats, which will promote 
his health, strength, and condition, and conduce very much to his 
symmetry. A peck of oats a-week may be enough at first, and 
through the greater part of the first winter, increasing it gradually 
to a peck and a half. During the second winter, two to three 
pecks per week may be given ; and at two and a half years old the 
colt may be broken to harness, doing perhaps half a horse’s work, 
and then his corn is to be increased accordingly. Carrots form an 
excellent addition to the food of colts, particularly through the first 
winter. 
THE VETERINARIAN, FEBRUARY 1, 1850. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — C iceho. 
PURSUING the subject of “discrepancy of opinion” between 
veterinary evidence in courts of justice, of which we the month be- 
fore last endeavoured to trace the causes so far as they lay with the 
