ON BREEDING. 
371 
would not bo amiss to imitate the prudent Bedouins in their care 
of the young* one. “ They never allow the foal, at the moment 
of birth, to fall upon the ground, but receive it in their arms, 
and so cherish it for several hours, occupied in washing and 
stretching its tender limbs, and caressing’ it, as they would a 
baby. After this they place it on the ground, and watch its 
feeble steps with particular attention; prognosticating from that 
time the excellencies or defects of their future companion*." 
Havingfoaled, the next care is to provide the mare with the best 
and most nutritious grass, in order to increase the quantity and im¬ 
prove the quality of the milk. Should the foal have been dropped 
early, when grass is scarce, which is a common practice, particu¬ 
larly with those intended for the turf, in order to gain a couple 
of months in their age, the darn should be fed with bran mashes, 
oats, carrots, or turnips, till the spring grass arrives. 
The earlier , in reason , the foal is dropped the better, from the 
advantage that may be derived from w r eaning the young animal 
before the spring grass has entirely disappeared; but to obtain 
this advantage, as well as the couple of months in its age, for 
the purpose of racing, breeders oftentimes sacrifice many a va¬ 
luable animal. Youth requires warmth for the purpose of growth; 
consequently extreme cold should be avoided on its entrance into 
the w orld. The ill effects of cold on new -born infants are plainly 
shewn by M. Julio Fontenelle. “ In Italy, of one hundred in¬ 
fants born in December, January, and February, sixty-six died in 
the first month, fifteen in the course of the year, and nineteen 
only survived. Of one hundred infants born in the spring, forty- 
eight survived. Of one hundred infants born in the summer, 
fifty-eight survived.” The author attributes this surplus of mor¬ 
tality during the cold months exclusively to the practice of ex¬ 
posing infants to the cold a few T days after birth. If we might, 
then, be allow ed to reason from analogy, w e would recommend 
breeders so to manage it, as to cause their mares to bring forth in 
the early part of spring, when they would be amply provided 
with food. 
In most animals, the season of love and the time of gestation 
are so admirably ordered by Nature, that the progeny w hen born 
are well provided with the peculiar species of food upon which 
they generally live. The oestrum of the mare happens in the 
summer ; she carries eleven months, and is generally delivered 
in the beginning of May. Sheep and goats come in season in 
the end of October, or beginning of November: they carry five 
months, and produce when the grass begins to spring. It was 
* Durekhardt. 
