The custom of seasoning the horse's food is of recent origin, and, as yet, it is not general. Stablemen -have indeed, from time immemorial, been in the habit of mixing nitre with all boiled food, and occasionally with the raw. but this is not what I mean by seasoning. Nitre, or saltpetre, as it is commonly called, does not render the food more palatable, nor aid its digestion, nor is it given for such purposes.

Salt is the only article employed in this country. In India, and perhaps in other places, the horse receives, at certain times, a dose of pepper, or some other stimulating and aromatic spice; and in hot countries, such things may be useful, as to a certain extent, they are in this.

There are two modes of giving salt, and a kind of salt for each mode. Some give one or two ounces of common table-salt, every night, along with the boiled food, with which it is well mixed; others give six or eight ounces at a time, and only once a week, generally on Saturday night, if the horses be idle all Sunday. By the former mode it is said to promote digestion, and to render the food more palatable; by the latter it relaxes the bowels, and increases the flow of urine. In both cases the salt excites considerable thirst, especially at first, before the horse becomes accustomed to it. When given only once a week, he never becomes accustomed to it. The same effects are produced every time the salt is given.

I have no reason to approve much of either of these modes. Fast-working horses, either from the laxative property of the salt, or from the quantity of water which it makes them drink, are very apt to purge, and to sweat easily and copiously. Some horses, too, are not partial to salt, at least they do not always like it. Its effects, when constantly used, are of such a doubtful nature, that I think every horse should have it in his power to take or to refuse it as he is disposed. That he may do so, he should be supplied with.