NOTES ON HORSE FEEDING. 



E. Lavalari). 



Superinteiidi')it of Coiiffreiices <tt tJw Natloiuil Ai/roimmic Institute. 



For many years the writer has conducted investigations on the feed- 

 ing- of horses for the Compar/nie generale des omnihuH de Paris^ with 

 the object of establishing a rational basis for the feeding of horses 

 under different conditions of work. The investigations have covered 

 .saddle horses and light draft horses traveling at a rapid gait, horses 

 hauling light loads, and finally heavy draft horses hauling heav}' loads 

 at a slow pace. Some years since, the author's earlier work along 

 these lines was included in a treatise on horse feeding.^ 



Ill these notes no attempt will be made to discuss the principles 

 which regulate the nutrition of horses. This suljject has been well 

 treated b}- Chauveau and his pupil Laulanie; by Duclaux, director of 

 the Pasteur Institute; by A. Gautier, and others in France; and by 

 von Mering, Zuiitz, and Wolff, in Germany. All who are interested 

 in investigations on horse feeding are familiar with the experiments 

 of Boussingault; of Baudement, on the horses of the Versailles garri- 

 son; of Hoft'meister at the experiment station of Weende, and of E. 

 Wolff, W. Finke. and O. Kellner; and also with the late experiments 

 made in France ])y Grandeau and Leclerc for the Compagnie genera- 

 ale des petites voitures^ and those undertaken by the author for the 

 Cornjxignie generale des omirihuH de Paris^ with the cooperation of 

 A. Miintz,- director of the laboratories of the National Agronomic 

 Institute. The special purpose of the present paper is to discuss the 

 practical side of horse feeding, especially the methods employed to 

 maintain, in a satisfactory state of efficiency and health, horses which 

 are required for any definite kind of work — methods which the author 

 has tested repeatedly with army horses and others. No reference can 

 be made to the analytical side of these investigations.'' 



*Le Cheval. Dans ses Rapports avec I'Economie Rurale et les Industries de Trans- 

 port. 2 vols. Paris: Firniin-Didot et Cie. Some of the author's recent work is 

 summarized in C'ompt. Rend. Congres Hoc. Aliment. Rat. Retail, 1 (1897), p. 60. 



'^ The greater part of the recent investigations on feeding of horses has been noted 

 in tlie volumes of the Experiment Station Record. The earlier work in which a 

 Ijalance of income and outgo was made is summarized in Ottice of Experiment Sta- 

 tions Bui. 45. 



^ For details of this phase of the investigation see articles by Miintz, Ann. Inst. 

 Nat. Agron., 1877-78, No. 2, p. 51; 1878-79, No. 3, p. 23; No. 4, p. 75; 1879-80, No. 

 5, p. 195; 1883-84, No. 9, p. 71. 

 4 



