ISS?.] Value of Carrots. 45 



property of gelatinizing the watery contents of tte digestive cavities. 

 A few drops of this pectic acid will gelatinize both, and, when mixed 

 with the juice of an orange, changes the same into jelly. So that, 

 if the alvine discharges of a horse are watery, carrots can be used 

 as a valuable therapeutic agent, both in view of arresting the same 

 and restoring the tone of the stomach and bowels. By examining 

 the excrement of a horse fed in part on carrots, it will be found to 

 contain no undigested hay or oats, and therefore we may safely in- 

 fer that they promote digestion ; so that, by the constant use of ear- 

 rots, less quantities of hay and oats will suffice than when a larger 

 amount is consumed, and parted with in an undigested state. For 

 fattening animals, carrots are exceedingly valuable. It will be 

 urged that carrots are not very nutritious. That may be ; still, if 

 they possess the property of gelatinizing the contents of the stom- 

 ach and bowels, they aid in the manufacture of fat out of other food, 

 which might otherwise pass out of the system. 



It is said that the milk of a cow at mid-winter, fed on carrots, is 

 equal in flavor to that supplied from clover in summer, while the 

 butter made from such milk presents a rich orange color, and does 

 not taste, as some persons suppose, of the peculiar flavor of this 

 vegetable. Two bushels of oats and one of carrots is better food for 

 a horse than three bushels of oats without carrots ; and when the 

 animal is used for light work only, the quantity of carrots may be 

 increased. 



The reader must bear in mind, however, that animals, like our- 

 selves have their peculiar idiosyncraeies or susceptibilities — 'what 

 is one man's food is another's poison'— and some might digest and 

 thrive amazingly on a given article of food, while an equal number 

 shall lose both flesh and spirits. There appears, however, to be less 

 objection to the judicious use of carrots than many other vegetables, 

 both as regards horses and cattle. If any of our readers happen to 

 have what we term a ' stall-fed horse, and the same shall be subject 

 to the heaves' — sometimes a symptom of indigestion only — let them 

 take away fine meal and substitute carrots, and, our word for it, the 

 horse will improve. 



