To supplement the milk of the mare with that of the cow as a means of raising foals is in certain circumstances both desirable and necessary. Fillies with their first foal frequently fall short of an ample supply to keep the sucker growing, and especially is this the case after a hard winter on indifferent fare. At this early period of life the mare is building up her own frame at the same time that she is nourishing her offspring. The mammary gland has not yet reached its full size, and as a milk-making machine it has not developed a high functional activity.

Mares advanced in years before being put to the stud, as well as those which have bred on to the decline of life, and others constitutionally weak, frequently fail to yield the necessary measure of milk for the support of their offspring. The same result may follow upon an injury to the mammary gland, by which its functional activity becomes in a greater or less degree curtailed. Nor is the question of the nourishing power of the dam's milk always one of quantity. The writer calls to mind several instances where foals have starved on what appeared to be an ample supply, but which was subsequently found to be of the most indifferent quality.

In these circumstances a little help from the cow, until the youngster can forage for itself, may make the difference between a valuable and a useless animal - between a serious loss and a substantial gain to the breeder. We must, however, condemn that pernicious system so much adopted towards foals preparing for show, of allowing them an unlimited supply of cow's milk not only before but long after they are weaned. There is no doubt that by this treatment a spurt is given to growth, size is materially increased, and so long as the allowance is continued and the balance of health upheld a vigorous growth is provoked and maintained - in other words the animal is " forced ". It is in this way that many of the foals and yearlings that take champion rank at our various shows are built up. But how many fall victims by the way, and fail to realize the hopes and aspirations of the too ambitious owner, is only known even approximately to those whose business calls them to minister to the unfortunates.

Diseased feet, overshot joints, bog-spavins, and wind-galls, to say nothing of the constitutional break-down which sometimes follows upon a discontinuance of the milk diet, are the too common consequences of this hurrying treatment.

It is not the intention of the writer to condemn the use of cow's milk in the rearing of foals where circumstances call for it, but to caution the breeder against its abuse, for when the ailments indicated above are brought into existence by this forcing system, they not only occasion immediate disappointment, but frequently continue, and result in deterioration and loss.