72G 
HISTORY OF THK HORSK, 
almost without consciousness. Thus circumstanced and secured 
as its organs are by their compact and well-constructed mechanism, 
it might be conceived that this process, at least, might escape the 
evil consequence of heedlessness and error; yet no function of the 
animal frame has suffered more from the ;pernicious effects of 
folly and cruelty—effects, the reality of which it would be difficult 
to credit, were it not well attested by woful experience and daily 
observation. 
It is a deeply interesting question to all concerned in the im¬ 
provement of the breed of horses,—Can the qualities of the English 
hunter be produced in the Arab form, by breeding solely from the 
Arabian stock, and trusting solely to the difference of feeding for 
remedying the deficiency of size ] This experiment is now under 
trial at Babolna. The system of feeding is precisely that of our 
racing stock. The foal is encouraged to nibble oats as soon as he 
can. There is no starving on bad pasture. He has the best of 
every thing in quality, but the quantity is fixed, and the food re¬ 
gularly weighed. 
Major Herbert, when first appointed to his post, observed, that 
of the high bred foals produced, by far the greater number died 
when they had attained the age of four months. He pondered on 
this, and came to the conclusion, that it was owing to some bad 
quality in the milk, the result of the unnatural state in which the 
mares lived. His next step was to try how far the foal would 
thrive if removed from the dam, and fed on boiled carrots. It 
throve to admiration; and now, the system being adopted upon all 
occasions, the mortality is one-fifth part less than under the old 
regime. I have also tried it myself with a foal I purchased of a 
gentleman in this neighbourhood—Mr. Pyne. The colt was with 
the mare six weeks when I bought it, and is now as perfect and 
promising as I ever saw one. 
Attention to the difference of our climate from the native land 
of the Arab cannot be too forcibly impressed upon the notice of all 
interested in breeding from this noble stock. I knew a valua¬ 
ble Arab colt, the sire and dam of which were imported at great 
expense and trouble from the East, that was, some time since, 
entirely lost by continued exposure day and night in an unshel¬ 
tered and damp pasture at a chilly season of the year, owing to 
the ignorance of the parties to whom it was entrusted. The result 
was atrophy’and a gradual decline of all the vital powers, ending 
in premature death. 
Gentle exercise during the period of gestation has a beneficial 
tendency; and with a proper and liberal allowance of food, particu¬ 
larly when the mare has advanced between four and five months 
(as it is about this period she generally, if at all, slips her foaB 
