THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



219 



THE SUBSTITUTION OF BARLEY FOR OATS IN FEEDING HORSES. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 



The extreme drought of 1857 having considerably re- 

 duced the return of oats, the sowings which we hoped to 

 find sufficient for our wants have not answered our 

 expectations. From the month of January we perceived 

 that the harvest of 1858 would be deficient, and we re- 

 quested one of our neighbours to lend us a crusher of 

 the manufacture of of M. Cambray hoping by its em- 

 ployment to reduce our consumption of oats. This 

 neighbour did not employ it, being under the influence 

 of his servants, who finding ttiat it added considerably 

 to their labour by its use, had in a manner refused it, 

 caring little otherwise to economise their employers' 

 oats. This neighbour kindly granted our request so 

 much the more readily, that, according to bim, his 

 crusher was of no value, as his servants could not make 

 it work. Having examined the mechanism, we found 

 that they had placed in the gearings, for purposes too 

 apparent, small pieces of wood, which absolutely stopped 

 the working. After having removed the obstacles, 

 cleaned and greased the machine, we got it to work well ; 

 but it did not continue long on account of the system of 

 the cylinders, which were grooved, the edges of which 

 were soon blunted, to the extent that the grain passed 

 without being crushed. We have since replaced this 

 crusher by one of M. Legendres flatting crushers 

 {nplatisseurs), from St. Jean d'Angely, the cylinders 

 of which being smooth and solid, are almost indestructi- 

 ble. It is also preferable for the grain to be flattened 

 rather than broken, because in the latter case it forms 

 itself into flour, which clogs the mouths of the horses, 

 and flies into their eyes and nostrils when they blow 

 over it. 



I state these facts only to point out on the one hand 

 that very frequently the employment of machines in the 

 hands of malevolent or inexperienced persons become 

 useless, and, on the other, that a system, however 

 altractive at first inspection, sometimes fails in practice. 



By means of this instrument we have been enabled to 

 reduce to one-sixth our allowance of oats, and might 

 probably reduce them still more. Oats crushed or flat- 

 tened double their bulk ; barley increases in bulk only 

 one-third. In the meanwhile the stock of oats is 

 being reduced; and the price having risen much above 

 the ordinary rate, we entertained the idea of replacing it 

 by some other kind of grain. M. Millet, who had re- 

 sided a long time in Spain where barley is exclusively 

 substituted for oats in feeding horses, persuaded us to 

 adopt its use. We have still a sufficient stock of this 

 grain (spring barley), which we had intended for the use 

 of our people, but at the low price of wheat there was 

 no perceptible economy in such an application of it, and 

 we did not hesitate to give them pure wheaten-bread, 

 in order to appropriate the barley to the feeding of the 

 horses. 



The price of oats at the beginning of March, 1858, 

 was already, for winter oats weighing 50 to 51 kilo- 

 grammes per hectolitre, from 10 to 11 francs; and for 

 spring oats weighing 40 to 41 kilos, per hectolitre, from 

 8 francs 50 cents, to 9 francs. Spring barley of good 

 quality, weighing from 62 to 63 kilos, per hectolitre, 

 worth 8 f. 75 c. to 9 f. Besides this, we knew that the 

 weight of the oats includes all the husk which covers the 

 grain, whilst barley has only a pellicle, the weight of 

 which is much below that of oats. An equal weight of 

 barley, therefore, contains a much greater quantity of 

 flour, and is consequently more nutritious. 



After making some calculations we have been satisfied 

 that the employment of barley in feeding our horses will 

 eff'ect a considerable saving, and we decided, in spite of 

 some little resistance on the part of our labourers, and 

 blame from some of our neighbours, that barley should 

 henceforth replace oats in the daily rations of the stables. 

 These contained four stout horses, two of them five 

 years old, and about 15^ hands high, and the other two 

 rather smaller. It only remained to determine in what 

 proportion with the oats we should give the barley. 



One of the strongest of our horses is employed in 

 two ways. He ploughs, does the carting of the farm 

 with the others, draws our four-wheeled carriage, goes 

 in the tilted cart, and sometimes is used for the saddle. 

 This double service requires a little more food in corn 

 than was given to the other horses which were exclusively 

 employed in tillage. It was resolved that the ration per 

 day of whole oats \1k pints (10 litres), at the periods of 

 heavy work, reduced to \2\ to 14 pints with lighter labour, 

 should be replaced by 11.^ pints of barley. The other 

 horses being rather smaller, and which received in times 

 of heavy labour 9 pints of oats, reduced at other periods, 

 was allowed about 5| pints of barley, reduced according 

 to circumstances, as with oats. The two other horses, 

 which were allowed 14 pints of oats during heavy labour 

 and reduced according to circumstances to 9 or 10 pints, 

 were allowed 9 pints of barley, with reductions according 

 to the work. 



The hay which our horses were then eating was 

 not of the best quality ; we gave them about 241bs. 

 each per day : this was a large allowance, but that of 

 straw had been withheld during the winter on account 

 of its scarcity. The harvest of 1857 yielded but little 

 forage or straw, at least with us ; the straw was pre- 

 served for the flocks, and what they rejected was used 

 for litter. Our horses and cows were littered with 

 young heather well mixed with herbage, forming a litter 

 sufficiently fine and proper for dung. Our dung-hill 

 bottoms of this year being composed chiefly of marly 

 earths, we have renounced for the season littering the 

 stables, &c., with marl, which would have supplied a 

 compost unsuitable to the nature of our soil. 



