to say that on a fair average those even in training, requiring the best food, can be kept, when oats are 32s. or 33s. a quarter, for 15s. a week. I speak of course of the absolute cost of forage of the best kind. Where horses are delicate feeders, and this is the case with some who are rare performers in the field, the appetite should be coaxed, by giving small quantities of food at short intervals, making the horse, in fact, an exception to the ordinary stable rule of feeding four times a day. A really good groom will carefully watch the peculiarities of such a horse as regards feeding, and come in due course to know what suits the animal, the result being plenty of good muscle, equal to that of more hearty "doers." But stimulating drugs, I repeat, should never be permitted. Carrots as an alterative are good, but they should be given only when ordered by a veterinary surgeon, in such quantities as he orders. They should be put in the manger whole, never cut up, as there is nothing more dangerous than the latter practice in feeding, because numerous instances are on record of horses choking themselves with pieces of carrot. When hunting time approaches, a little more steam as regards pace at exercise may be put on. Trotting up hills of easy ascent serves materially to "open the pipes," and, despite a very general prejudice to the contrary, I maintain that, for some weeks before hunting commences, a horse is all the better for a steady canter of moderate length every morning. A very good reason why stud grooms as a rule object to this is, simply because it involves a great deal more work in the stable. If horses are only walked or trotted at exercise, one man generally can manage very well to exercise two horses, riding one, and leading the other with a dumb jockey or bearing reins on him; but, if the horse is to be cantered, there must be a man or boy to every horse, and, consequently, exercise would occupy considerably more time. It is quite clear that the horse will have to gallop when hunting begins, and, as all training should be inductive, it is absurd to say that he should do nothing up to the 31st of October but walking and trotting, while on the first day of November his owner may come down from town and give him a rattling gallop with hounds. Surely such extremes are not reconcilable with common sense! Let me now say a word about washing horses, about which also considerable diversity of opinion exists, some maintaining that the brush and wisp alone ought to keep the horse's skin in proper form, and others advocating washing partially.