424 ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FARM HORSE. 
It consists of a recipe which has been handed down from father to 
son from time immemorial. Some carters or wagoners do not con¬ 
sider themselves master in their art before possessed of one of 
these receipts; the cost is sometimes fifteen or twenty shillings to 
purchase it; and some carters will expend two shillings per week 
out of their wages to buy the drugs during the whole time of stable¬ 
feeding. The formula consists of grains of paradise, cayenne pepper, 
cantharides or Spanish flies, with a host of other injurious ingredi¬ 
ents. An occasional tonic, or a few condition or alterative powders, 
is of great service to the over or hard-worked horse: it is the inju¬ 
dicious administration of spices and stimulants by the carter, un¬ 
known to his master, that is so much to be condemned. To produce 
a fine coat is the purpose for w'hich the carter gives them. Very 
few medicinal agents are required to bring this about. A moderately 
warm temperature, suitable clothing, with good grooming and clean¬ 
liness, are most essential points to be attended to in producing a 
good coat; whereas, hot stables, excess in clothing, and stimulants, 
are chiefly resorted to by the indolent carter or groom. Regular 
feeding, with attention to the animal’s external wants by the carter, 
is as much as is required by the farmer’s horse; and the same 
attention ought to be paid him as the hack, hunter, or carriage- 
horse receives from his groom. 
Clipping the Cart Horse. 
Earnest attention has been paid to the clipping of the hunter 
and roadster, for the last twenty years; it forms, indeed, a prin¬ 
cipal feature in their stable management. Within the last few 
years the cart horse has been put under its influence. The effect 
produced is as extraordinary, as a salutary measure, in the cart 
horse as in the higher bred horse. From my own observation on 
the clipping of the cart horse, 1 can speak of it in terms of com¬ 
mendation. It is well known that farm horses, more especially 
those that are taken up late from grass in the autumn, acquire, 
about the latter part of November, a long, woolly coat, which sets 
so close that neither brush nor comb can penetrate it. But little 
work makes them all over in perspiration; they become languid 
and dispirited; wagoners and carters complain that they can 
never get them dry ; in fact, if the weather is warm at this season 
they will sweat in the stable, have an impaired appetite, and can 
scarcely perform half-a-day’s work without tiring. Let the horse 
be clipped. It is no more marvellous than true—in ten days he 
will be a different animal: his vigour and spirit will return ; his 
appetite and condition rapidly become restored ; no clammy or 
