REMARKS ON VARIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS 
630 
thorough-bred horse in his stud. To the bang tail of a well-bred 
hunter I have no objection ; it is, perhaps, an ornament to him : 
but I cannot go the length of Mr. Gilpin, in his Remarks on Forest 
Scenery, that the tail of a horse assists him in his action, and, by 
“ balancing his body, prevents his stumbling !” In my opinion, 
nature, who has given nothing in vain, intended the tail of a horse 
for two purposes, and for two only, — to add to his beauty in his 
natural state, and to brush off the flies in the summer heat. Every 
lover of the animal, however, must rejoice at this change of 
fashion on one account, and that is, even allowing that part of 
the dock may be cut off in colthood, the prevalence of the bang 
or switch tail does away with the practice of docking and re- 
docking, just to please the eye, as was formerly the case*. 
The condition of the hunters in what may be called the crack 
counties is really superb, if such an epithet expressive of superla- 
tiveness may here be allowed. It is not only extremely superior 
to that seen in the provincials, but it appears to me to be better 
and better as time advances. That the Melton horses should look 
well is not to be marvelled at, from the hands they are in ; but I 
am quite sure that, independently of the forage, which is of the very 
best description, the water at Melton is of the right sort for horses. 
Having alluded to forage, let me say a word touching a book 
lately noticed in your pages— Professor Stewart’s “ Stable Eco- 
nomy,” in which he treats of food, and with much truth, as well as 
ability. But, after all, good hay, oats, and beans, continue to be 
the general food of English horses, and such will they ever conti- 
nue to be, because they (oats and beans, at all events) have stood 
the test of some centuries, and experience has proved them to be 
the best that can be grown for horses that work hard and travel 
quickly. All the other varieties mentioned by Mr. Stewart, if not 
falling under the denomination of quackery, will never come into 
common use ; and the recommendation of Arthur Young, or Cob- 
bet, both of them quacks on subjects of this nature, goes for 
nothing. Plorses may, I believe, be taught to eat any thing, from 
a beef-steak to turtle-soup ; but there is nothing so natural as the 
common food generally adopted in Great Britain. 
1 wish Mr. Stewart had said something of wheaten straw, the 
use of which, for certain work, I am much inclined to think well 
of. I find that the French have the term, a horse of straw, i. e. 
one that eats straw — to denote a good one. When he says milk 
is occasionally given to stallions in the covering season, he states 
what is fact. I saw it given, with the best effect, to the celebrated 
* The wisdom of antiquity decides against the practice of docking and 
cropping horses, inasmuch as no one instance can be found, in the remains of 
Grecian or Roman sculpture, of a short dock or a cropt ear. 
