104 
PURE BRED DRAFT HORSES 
“The colts when they come upon the farms, are put five or six together, 
pell-mell, into an indifferently ventilated stable, which receives its light 
through a lattice door. Their nourishment consists of a very thin mush, 
made of barley flour and bran, frequently renewed. The solid portion 
of their food is composed of dry clover hay, with which their cribs are 
regularly filled. 
“Some farmers feed aftermath, which is sweeter; but as this is apt to 
load the stomach, in order to render it more easily digested, it is mixed 
with oat-straw. 
“It is very rare that these colts, changed from one district to another, 
often making long stages, and exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, 
are not attacked with strangles. Many raisers at this period have the 
pernicious habit of giving them some kind of grain, in order to warm 
them up, and cause them to throw off the disease. But this food has the 
fault of thickening the blood too much, and exposes them to numerous 
ailments. 
“The diet is continued until the spring, at which time the colts are 
given green fodder in the stable. Later they are turned into the clover 
fields after the first cut, or into the meadows after they are mowed. 
“At 18 months they commence their apprenticeship; passing their necks 
through the collar, they are harnessed to plows or wagons with horses 
already broken, although of an age at which, in many countries, their 
equals are as yet ignorant of all labor.” 
2. Common and Infectious Diseases, and Other Ailments 
Strangles—Adenitis equorum 
“Strangles is an acute, contagious, infectious disease of horses, in the 
course of which catarrhal symptoms of the upper air passages develop in 
association with suppurative inflammations in the adjoining lymph 
glands, and sometimes in a metastatic form in more distant lymph glands. 
The streptococcus equi is considered at the present time as the cause of 
the disease. 
“. . . Strangles occurs almost annually in studs and sale depots, 
when it usually affects practically all the young foals in a varying 
degree. In later stages it is rarely observed, and almost exclusively in 
horses which have not passed through the disease while young. It occurs 
almost everywhere (Ireland and Argentine are supposed to be free from 
the infection), and although its course is usually favorable, yet it may 
cause considerable loss to the horse owner through frequent disturbances 
in the development of the colts, and also by occasional deaths. 
“Under natural conditions the infection occurs usually through the 
nasal secretion or pus from affected animals entering, directly by trans¬ 
mission with contaminated substances (food, drinking water), the upper 
air passages of a healthy horse . . . where it adheres to the mucous 
membrane. It is also very possible that infection takes place through 
the uninjured mucous membrane, where the bacteria very likely pene¬ 
trate the excretory ducts of the mucous glands. The disease which usually 
attacks all the colts in a stable, could hardly be explained otherwise; on 
the other hand the infection is favored by conditions of the mucous mem¬ 
branes in which there is a desquamation of the epithelium, or by deep 
penetrating injuries. 
“The disease occurs usually when affected or not entirely recovered 
animals are introduced into the stable . . . scabs from an exanthema 
of the skin of colts affected . . . may also disseminate the infection. 
“The air evidently plays an important part in the transmission of 
the infection, inasmuch as in the warm and moist stable air the virus 
expelled during coughing and blowing may float for a considerable time 
