THE II0K8E. 
43 
this evil exists, any persons who entertain a doubt as to the primary cause 
may readily convince themselves, by investigating the course of treat- 
ment to which the animal has been subjected. Horses which are reared 
on wet, marshy land are invariably afflicted with this relaxed condition 
ot the absorbent vessels of the legs. Constant supplies of green succu- 
lent food render the defects constitutional, and the most scientific stable 
management is often frustrated when such animals are required to per- 
form ordinary labor; their legs fail, not from anatomical defects, but 
from the cause explained, which operates injuriously upon a structure 
which is naturally perfect. 
Superficial judges of horses do not mark the difference between the 
appearances of a fat and a muscular-formed animal. If the bones are 
covered, the points filled out, and the general contour looks pleasing to 
the eye, they conceive that every requisite is accomplished. A more 
fallacious impression cannot exist. A horse of very moderate preten- 
sions, if in perfect condition, will prove himself infinitely superior in the 
quality of endurance or capability to perform work, than one of a 
higher character which is not in condition. If two horses are ridden 
side by side, at the moderate pace of seven or eight miles in the hour 
011 a c summer > oue which has been taken out of a 
grass field, and the other fed on hay and grain, the difference will be 
very soon detected. The grass-fed horse will perspire profusely, yet 
the other will be cool and dry. This propensity to perspire likewise 
proves that the system of the former is replete with adipose deposit, and 
fluids destined to produce that substance ; an unnecessary encumbrance 
and in such quantities opposed to freedom of action. 
. U'ffl er an impression that an abundance of luxuriant grass will 
increase the flow of milk, it is frequently given to brood mares, but if 
it lias the effect of producing relaxation, it is exceedingly prejudicial. 
A moderate portion of good milk is far preferable to that which is 
weak and poor. Thorough-bred mares are not unfreqnently deficient 
in their lacteal secretions, more so than those of a common description 
it is obviously necessary that either class should be supplied with <>ood 
and nutritions food for the purpose of augmenting -it when insufficient, 
but the nature of the food requires to be regulated by the constitution 
of the individual. 
A mistaken notion of economy frequently induces persons to turn 
their horses into the grass fields during the summer months. A few 
words may serve to dispel that delusion. Twenty-two bushels of oats, 
allowing one bushel per week, which is sufficient for young stock or 
horses not in work, from the 15th of May to the 16th of October, may 
be estimated as the produce of a trifle more than half an acre of land. 
ten . t0 twe,ve hundred weight of hay may be estimated as the 
produce of another half-acre, although a ton and a half per acre, is not 
more than an average crop on land in good condition. It will require 
an acre of grass land, capable of producing a ton and a half of hay, to 
support a horse during the above-named period. When the relative 
!' 0ISe W ! nc ! 1 , has , been ke Pt 011 hay and grain, is compared 
against th° l ft 6 W nC1 has beea grazed, the verdict will be considerably 
