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Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 148, 3 June 1893, Page 4

As grit is to fowls, so is dirt to horses, is the last fad from the United States. In describing management of bis stables, Mr. J. Malcom Forbes, the owner oi the celebrated trotting mare Nancy Hauks, makes tbe following ttatement. " My horses" he says, •• stand on loam ; they eat it; they sleep on it. Mother earth is the best specific for a horse that I know of. Give a horse plenty of air and light, plenty of exercise,' plenty of the right kind of food, and plenty of clean loam to eat and he will always be in good condition. That is the secret of tbe success of Kentucky-bred borses. Tbe Blue Grass region is famous tor its horses, but 1 firmly believe that it is the pood Kentucky dirt, as much as the grass, that is the secret ot their success in horse-raising. There are not many who realise how much dirt a horse eats in tbe course of a day. Why, it is noi at all an uncommon thine for a horse to eat a good -sized cupful of earth in a single day. He needs it to stimulate his digestive organs just as much as a fowl needs graevl. Keep a horse from dirt, shut him »p >n a stall with board foundations, and he will quickly got out of condition. My stalls are constructed on this plan. For the foundation I have a thick Inyer of gravel, and over that 1 place several inches o\ clean loam. That is all, except occasionally a layer of straw in extremely cold weather* The gravel serves as a drain for all impurities, and the loam is changed as often as the occasion seems to demand. As soon as it loses its freshness it is removed and a new layer is spread. As a result of this system my stalls are kept absolutely clean and sweet without the use of disinfectants. There are no unnecessary ornamentations. Such things collect the dust and keep the air full o( impurities. For that reason I have constructed my stable as simple as possible."