434 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



hay ; the animals eat twice what they need and far more than they 

 can profitably digest; while they waste or do not relish at least 

 30 per cent of it. Horses in. work should be fed hay only once 

 per day — at night — unless it is thought best to give them a mere 

 handful at noon. For thirty-five years I have followed this practice 

 — for nineteen years having the care of 300 to 500 horses every 

 day, and never had any but the best results with never a case of 

 heaves or colic. Nothing can be worse for a horse than to begin 

 the day with an overloaded stomach. At night he has the time, 

 and after a little rest, the digestion to handle all the hay he needs 

 in the 24 hours. In fact, I always make my men take away from 

 the horses all the hay they do not consume in one hour — and any 

 careful feeder, by doing this for a few days, will find out almost 

 exactly what each animal will consume in that period and feed that 

 quantity regularly. A horse must rest, and so must his stomach ; 

 it is what he digests properly, not what he eats, that puts the flesh 

 on his ribs. Any pot-bellied, hay-stuffed horse or colt is a dis- 

 grace, a needless expense, and an animal incapable of ably and 

 safely doing the work or making the growth for which he is kept. 



Few farm horses are half-cleaned, and the soap and water 

 which are as wholesome for any beast as for man are practically 

 never applied. A thorough bath once a week will take care of all 

 the dandruff, dried sweat and dirt, even if the subject gets mere- 

 ly a bare "lick over" with a brush all other days. Any time they 

 are cool, wash all over. Soap well, wash again, and scrape; keep 

 them out of a draft for an hour, and if weather is at all cold or 

 changeable, throw on an old blanket for them to "steam out" in. 

 In. my riding schools, where I had often one hundred horses of 

 my own in hard work, every one was washed every night, and 

 Saturday nights got an alcohol shampoo. They shone like glass 

 bottles, were in fine flesh and vigorous health, averaged 30 miles 

 a day in work, and while I had a man to every 10 horses of my 

 boarders, four men took all the care of my own 100 — a huge saving 

 in labor. 



Of course, in Missouri, mule breeding attracts great attention, 

 and many farmers will prefer to breed these profitable hybrids 

 rather than horses. The big, drafty mare is the sort to drop the 

 mule that tops the market, and no man should waste time now- 

 adays with little 1,000-pound mares. Bulk and weight we must 

 have to handle modern machinery, and to get the prices, and this 

 size must come from somewhere as an inheritance. Mules are not 

 popular in the east, as contractors in cities find they do not average 



