35 



horses, oats or grain should not be ground, nor should hay or straw 

 be chali'ed. In other words, provided tlie animals have time to masti- 

 cate their ration thoroughl}^ grinding is not necessary. When this 

 is not the case, grinding takes the place of thorough mastication to 

 some extent and increases the assimilation of the ration. 



When whole oats were compared with ground wheat and bran by 

 Shepperd" at the North Dakota Station the horses fed the former 

 ration ate somewhat more, and showed a slight loss in weight, while 

 doing a little less work than those fed the ground grain. 



In a test of the comparative merits of timoth}^ hay and corn and 

 clover, oats, and wheat made with two lots of work horses at the Utah 

 Station'^ the grains were fed unground for somewhat more than one- 

 half of the experimental period and ground during the remainder of 

 the period. The ground and unground grains were regarded as equally 

 satisfactory. 



At the Iowa Station Wilson and Curtiss'^^ compared whole and ground 

 grains (oats, corn, and barley) for colts, and found that somewhat 

 larger gains were made on the ground feed. 



In the study of the digestibility of the different feeding stuff's car- 

 ried on at the Maryland Experiment Station Patterson'^ compared a 

 number of whole and ground feeds. His results show that ground 

 oats and corn were more thoroughly digested than the unground grain. 

 In this connection it should be noted that similar results have been 

 obtained in tests with other farm animals, but it is coimnonly believed 

 that the difference in digestibility is often not sufficient to pay for the 

 additional cost of grinding. 



From the American tests and those which have been made in 

 Europe it appears fair to say that there is no very marked advantage 

 in grinding grain for healthy horses with good teeth. Lavalard says: 



Contrary to the opinion of some experts, the writer believes it is not necessary to 

 grind grain for liorses. This is especially true in the case of oats. In some of our 

 earlier experiments, where ground grain was fed, it was noticed after a few months 

 that the horses preferred to crush it themselves. Of course this does not refer to old 

 horses [i. e., horses having poor teeth]. They can be fed ground grain to advantage. 



CUT AND UNCUT COARSE FODDER. 



It is perhaps the general opinion that when horses have ample time 

 for chewing and digesting their feed there is no necessity for chaffing 

 or cutting hay and straw. When the time for feeding is limited 

 chaffing and cutting coarse fodder is regarded as advantageous. This 

 is an item of special importance with hard- worked horses kept in the 

 stable only at night. Furthermore, chaffed feed occupies less space 

 for storage than uncut hay or straw and can be readil}^ handled. 



«North Dakota Station Bui. 20. f Iowa Station Bui. 18, p. 470. 



6 Utah Station Bui. 30. ^Maryland Station Bui. 51. 



