FOOD AND WATER. 221 
These increased secretions subside in the course of a few days to a con- 
siderable extent, but continue, more or less, as long as the grass continues 
to be the sole article of food. This will, of course, account for the cooling 
effect always remarked on horses at grass, in which inflamed joints and 
swelled legs rapidly subside, and inflammatory diseases of most kinds have 
a tendency to abate. ‘The amount of nourishment contained in grass is 
small as compared with its bulk, and hence the belly of every horse 
enlarges considerably while at grass, because of the necessity for a larger 
quantity being contained within it, so as to afford a sufficient means of 
nutrition. Winter grass, which contains no clover, from this plant not 
being of a nature sufficiently hardy to stand the frost, is so void of 
nourishment, that the horse confined to it alone speedily becomes very 
poor, and will almost starve if he has not some hay or corn. 
Hay is not merely grass cut when most full of nourishment—that is, 
just when the seeds are ripening—but it is also subjected to a degree of 
fermentation, which converts some of the starch into sugar. Until this 
change has been fully gone through, the hay is not wholesome; and 
hence new hay has obtained a character for producing worms, which is 
not without some foundation; the reason being that the stomach and 
bowels are put out of order; and this being a necessary condition pre- 
vious to the development of the ova of parasitic animals, it is a natural 
consequence that worms should be more frequently met with in horses 
fed upon new hay, than in those whose digestive organs are strengthened 
by the healthy stimulus of sound old hay. Of course, fodder of all kinds 
may be too old, as well as too new; but well-made hay does not begin to 
lose its good qualities till after the second winter, and remains perfectly 
fit for ordinary purposes during at least another twelvemonth. ‘There are 
several varieties of hay grown and sold throughout the country, which 
may be divided into three principal growths ; viz. upland hay, in which 
no water grasses are met with, and which generally contains a large pro- 
portion of clover ; meadow or lowland hay, made up of the various kinds 
of water grasses and plants fond of wet soils ; and clover hay, which is 
made from the common red clover, without any admixture of grasses. Of 
these, upland hay is alone fit for horses used at high speed ; and no other 
should ever be admitted into the stables of the private gentleman, except 
clover intended to be cut into chaff. 
Good old Upland Hay is known by its peculiarly sweet and grateful 
smell, and by being made up of fine dry bents of grass with the seeds well 
developed, mixed with a small proportion of white clover. The colour 
should neither be a bright green nor a dark brown, an intermediate shade 
of brownish green being the best, and showing by its green cast that the 
hay has not been lying out in the rain, and by the absence of any deep 
blackish brown tint that it has not been put together too soon and thereby 
become heated. A rick of good hay may be entirely spoiled by a want of 
proper caution in getting it in, and many a one hus taken fire from this 
omission, or if not absolutely burnt it has been so heated that it cuts quite 
black and is unfit for food. If the hay is dusty it is either from having 
been flooded, which marks its lowland character, and in which case the 
dust is of a mineral nature ; or the vegetable material becomes powdery 
from being overheated,—and thereby rendered brittle, and easily broken 
down by the slightest friction. Experience alone can enable the purchaser 
to select exactly the proper kind and condition of hay, but if once a good 
sample is carefully exemined by the eye and nose it can scarcely be 
forgotten. "When hay has been burnt it is not always at first refused 
