The colts, when they come upon the farms, are put five or six together, pell-mell, into an indifferently ventilated stable, which receives its light through a lattice door. Their nourishment consists of a very thin mush, made of barley flour and bran, frequently renewed. The solid portion of their food is composed of dry clover and hay, with which their cribs are regularly filled. Some farmers feed aftermath, which is sweeter; but as this is apt to load the stomach, in order to render it more easily digested, it is mixed with oat-straw. It is very rare that these colts, changed from one district to another, often making long stages, and exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, are not attacked with strangles. Many raisers at this period have the pernicious habit of giving them some kind of grain, in order to warm them up, and cause them to throw off the disease. But this food has the fault of thickening the blood too much, and exposes them to numerous ailments. This diet is continued until the spring, at which time the colts are given green fodder in the stable. Later, they are turned into the clover fields after the first cut, or into the meadows after they are mowed. At eighteen months they commence their apprenticeship; passing their necks through the collar, they are harnessed to plows or wagons with horses already broken, although of an age at which, in many countries, their equals are as yet ignorant of all labor. The food, composed of clover principally, hay, millet straw, corn salad, (_Feticus_,) and cracked rye, baked in loaves, becomes from this time forth, a little more nourishing. They also commence to eat oats, but as yet, sparingly. This is not given them pure, but with the chaff—that is to say, it is not winnowed. The quantity of this food used by day is not less than to 1½ to 1¾ gallons, yielding not much more than ⅓ of a gallon of oats. On the other hand, the meal and the mush are increased, to give them body and strength. At thirty months old they are still kept upon this food, in the midst of all the farm work, which they daily perform (with, however, a great deal of moderation), and in dragging very light burdens; for, truly, it is but a training, to confirm the hereditary mildness of their character, and to teach them, little by little, to become willing and fearless. In the meanwhile the dealer, who roams constantly about among the farms, arrives. He buys and resells immediately to the farmers of Little Perche and Thimerais. More stimulating feed is given them, in consequence of more constant and harder work. This life lasts a year, and is terminated by the passage into Beauce, or the Chartres country, where their work is again increased. With the work the feed increases, and this combination leads to the perfection of the horse.