RECENT EXPERIMENTS IN HORSE FEEDING. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The scientific study of different problems connected with the feeding 

 of farm animals has been followed for something over half a century. 

 Some of the very early work was with horses, Ijut more generally it 

 was carried on with other domestic animals. Within the last few years 

 this phase of the problem has received much more attention, and feed- 

 ing tests, digestion experiments, and more complicated investigations 

 have accumulated in considerable numbers. The bulk of this work 

 has been carried on in France and Germany; a creditable amount, 

 however, has been done in this country, notably by the agricultural 

 experiment stations, and the results of these experiments and obser- 

 vations have been published from time to time, and are very useful. 

 Mention must be made also of the work of practical feeders, which is 

 of great value. 



In the present bulletin the attempt is made to bring together some 

 of the more important results and deductions which may be gathered 

 from the American and foreign experimental work, especiall}^ that of 

 recent years. It is not the purpose to provide practical feeders with 

 directions for feeding according to a particular formula; indeed this 

 is not necessary, if it were possible, for practical feeders understand 

 the needs of their horses and how to meet them. The object is rather 

 to summarize matter which seems interesting and valuable, and which 

 in many cases may give the reason for something of which the wisdom 

 has long been recognized in practice. 



In addition to the bulletins, reports, and other works cited in the 

 following pages, a large number of scientific and popular journals, 

 treatises on horse feeding, and similar publications have been consulted, 

 as well as reports issued by American and foreign experiment stations. 



That a scientific study of the feeding of horses may not be without 

 direct practical value is shown by the work of Grandeau, Leclerc, Lava- 

 lard, and others for the Paris Cab and 'Bus companies. By means of 

 experimental studies of the food value and digestibility of different 

 feeding stuffs, carried on under definite conditions, it was possible to 

 so modify the ration fed to the thousands of horses belonging to one 

 of these companies that an annual saving of 1,000,000 francs or over 

 was effected, while at the same time the health and strength of the 



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