FOODS ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 



1019 



With reference to the use of coarse fodders the author says : 



" Although bulky foods, such as hay or straw chaff, are necessary ingredients of 

 horse rations, a horse is by no means so capable of digesting vegetable fiber as an ox 

 or sheep ; the horse, in fact, is not provided with the digestive apparatus belonging 

 to ruminant animals. In Wolff's experiments atHohenheim,in which the same diet 

 was supplied both to ahorse and sheep, the horse succeeded worst in his digestion of 

 the fiber of straw chaff, of grass, and of meadow hay, while in the case of clover 

 and lucern hay he nearly equaled the sheep in digestive power. Wolff in his last 

 report comes to the remarkable conclusion that the fiber digested by a horse is of no 

 value, either as a means of sustenance while at rest or for the production of work. 

 No direct proof of this is furnished; the conclusion is drawn from the lower nutritive 

 and force-producing value of the digested matter of diets including hay. The con- 

 clusion has not been generally accepted, and the facts will, perhaps, bear another 

 interpretation." 



Experiments on the amounts of food required by ahorse at rest, with 

 only sufficient exercise to preserve health, are summarized. 



" In Grandeau's experiments with meadow hay alone as the diet 3 horses were 

 kept at rest for various times, amounting in all to 4 or 5 months each, half an hour's 

 walking exercise being allowed per day. Each horse received 17.6 lbs. of hay per 

 day, and this proved exactly sufficient to maintain their weight unaltered. The 

 amount digested by each horse was determined through the whole period by analy- 

 sis of the solid excrements. The 3 horses did not digest the hay equally well, and 

 thus each horse was really nourished audits weight maintained by somewhat differ- 

 ent amounts of food. The average result of 3 months' feeding for each horse was as 

 follows : 



Digestihle maltcr req\tived per day for maintenance of horses at rest. 



" Grandeau and Leclerc experimented with many other diets, but in only a few cases 

 did their maintenance diets exactly meet the wants of the horse. The results in 

 these cases are given in the next table, but the results with other diets are of far less 

 authority than those obtained in the more extended experiments with meadow hay. 



Dry matter in maintenance rations for horses. 



Diet. 



Hay alone (mean) 



Maize and oat straw 



Maize, oats, hay, and straw 



Do 



Oats alone (crushed.i 



18055— No. 11 6 



Weight of 

 horse. 



Pounds. 

 868 

 1,013 

 972 

 906 

 913 



Di-y organic m.attor per day. 



Tn ration. 



Pounds. 

 14.08 

 11.57 

 9.48 

 9.49 

 8.59 



Digested. 



Pounds. 

 6.09 

 8.33 

 7.30 

 6.74 

 6.41 



Digested 

 per 1,000 

 lbs. live 

 weight. 



Pounds. 

 7.0& 

 8.22 

 7.50 

 7.45 

 7.02 



