THE BROOD MARE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 821, 21 May 1910, Page 8

THE BROOD MARE.

AN AMERICAN VIEW. . The most profitable farm worker now ■u tho biood mare (so writes "E T E " in the Chicago "Breeders' Gazette , '), inat proposition, he says, admits no dispute The mare is the cessful dual-purpose animal on the farm, performing almost a full season's work, and raising practically as good a colt as though she spent tho entireyear in idleness. In farming with, brood mares one must remember before toaling that excessive loads, hard backing, slipping, and crowding around corners in the field in soft ground! should be avoided, aad again after a new lite has become dependent on tho mare s milk she needs regularity in her management and feeding, and moderate work when heat is excessive.' A little, tnoughtfulness will pilot a team o£ brood mares successfully through a season of hard work and secure this double income. "Whether brood mare or gelding, it isthe healthy well-fed horse that exhibits the greatest endurance and hardihood in the harness; so economical management imposes a liberal policy at tho barn. When censured "for the foraging af his soldiers on the march, General Hatch replied: "A hungry man can't fight." And be had a division noted during the Civil War for its grit andi persistence. A horse ill-nourished cannot exercise more than a shadow of its possible force throughout the seaBon. A horse, like a' man, may go on its nerve for a time, but an actual reserve of energy is needed to carry it through repeated emergencies without undermining its constitution. That reserve cannot be maintained when muscles hardened by work are allowed to waste away to furnish energy on which to perform their labour. The emaciated horse loses money by his lack of power and by his waning vitality. Such a weak and inevitably short-lived horso should not be tolerated, much less- courted, even when feed is costly. To be well-fed a horse must not be stuffed spasmodically. Regnlar watchful feeding on good sweet hay and an allowance of sound grain, near to the limit of bis appetite when at heavy work and reduced one-half on Sundays and idle times, supplies ahorse with suitable material for power.

Speaking of the investigations which the Veterinary Division of the Department of Agriculture are making into the mysterious "bush sickness" in tho Bay of Plenty country, the 'Minister stated that the previous investigations had all been carried to a certain point, and then dropped. It is his intention now to see the matter through to a finish. A very large area of land is affected, something like a milliuu acres, and the matter is far too' important for the desultory attention that has been given it in. the past. It is sary, Mr. Mackenzie says, that the inquiries should be persisted in until some explanation of the trouble is found.

Twelve degrees of frost were registered at Ashburtoti on Wednesday morning, and there was a fairly thick coating of ice on still water. Snow foil is far down as the coal nits at Mount Somers.