224 THE HORSE. 
costing the same money, only taking care that they are equally sweet and 
sound. Three and a half quarterns of the one will, probably, about equal 
the three quarterns of the other; and thus a slight saving may be 
effected, the former costing about threepence less than the latter, making 
a difference of nearly two shillings per week. I have tried this plan for 
a series of years, and found it to answer well; my horses having always 
been full of condition, and costing me, on an average of years, nine 
shillings and a fraction of a penny per head for food and litter. Oats 
should never be given while they are new, and until the March winds 
have dried the last year’s crop it is seldom fit for horse food. Indeed, 
this is, on the average, too early a period to begin using oats as a rule, 
especially for horses consuming large quantities of them; but for hacks 
and harness-horses they do not hurt by that time. Good oats may be 
known by their plump look, and fuil, hard feel to the touch, by their 
sweet smell and taste, by their bright straw colour, and by the absence of 
dust and stones. As before remarked, they should weigh from thirty-nine 
to forty-one pounds per bushel. They will keep good for two or three 
years in the rick. 
New oats are indigestible, and act prejudicially on the bowels and 
kidneys. As a natural consequence, the horse eating them becomes 
flabby in his flesh, sweats profusely, and often throws out the eruption 
known as “surfeit.” If it is necessary to use them at once, they should 
be-kiln-dried ; and this plan is always resorted to for oats which are im- 
ported into this country, to prevent the heating which would occur in the 
hold of the vessel from the bulk which is lodged there, and which would 
soon make damp new oats musty. They may be recognised by their soft- 
ness to the touch, and by the white substance within each grain being 
pulpy and quite unlike flour, as it ought to be in old oats. English oats 
are considerably heavier than those of either of the sister kingdomis, and 
generally bring a much better price to the grower. Irish and Welsh oats 
are sweet, but light, and they contain a large number of stones, which 
must be carefully removed in the sieve. When they are bruised, these 
stones are very apt to injure the teeth of the mill, and should be carefully 
picked out before putting them into the hopper. A great many black 
oats are grown both in Ireland and Wales, and there is no objection to 
them on account of colour alone; but it is apt to make the grower careless 
in getting them in, as they do not lose in appearance by damp so much as 
the white oat. The Scotch oat is particularly sound and good, being often 
as heavy as the English oat, and of a better quality; so that the Scotch 
oatmeal is superior to all other. 
When oats are kiln-dried they are said by some fanciful stablemen to 
produce diabetes, but it does not appear that any prejudicial effect fol- 
lows merely from the artificial drying. Many of the oats so treated are 
previously damaged, and then of course they are likely to produce an 
injurious effect upon the stomach, but not from the mere drying itself. 
It is also a common practice to sulphur them at the same time for the 
purpose of improving the colour, and this may add to the diuretic effect. 
But there is very little, if any, injury done by small quantities of sulphur, 
and on that account alone an otherwise good sample of oats should not 
be rejected. 
Oats are either given whole, or converted into meal, when they are used 
in the shape of gruel, or they are bruised (sometimes called “kibbled”). 
The entire oat is not always crushed by the grinders of the horse, and it 
then often passes through the digestive canal without losing its nutritive 
