FOOD AND WATER. 225 
materials, indeed, it is by no means uncommon to see a large quantity of 
vats vegetating ona manure heap. Hence there is a great loss, for unless 
the oats swallowed are digested, they are quite useless in imparting 
nourishment, and to avoid this defect it is now very usual to bruise all the 
oats before they are put in the manger. I have already alluded to the 
oat-bruising machine as a necessary appendage in every stable, and I may 
only here remark, that the saving is supposed to be nearly one-fourth of 
the consumption. This estimate is in my opinion too high for young and 
vigorous horses, but for old ones it is accurate enough. There is a vast 
difference in horses, in respect to their power of digesting oats, and if the 
droppings of a number of these animals are carefully examined, this will 
be very apparent. Sometimes a whole oat can-scarcely be found in a large 
mass, while in other cases nearly fifty per cent. will be evidently undis- 
solved. Many people, and especially trainers of racehorses, have an idea 
that bruising oats interferes with the wind of the horses to which they 
are given, but this is purely imaginary, and cannot for a moment be sup- 
ported either on theoretical or experimental grounds. The bruising is always 
advantageous, but not to the same extent; still it cannot be denied that 
the labour of working the oat-bruisers is well bestowed. The grains 
should not be more than crushed, soas to readily admit the gastric juice to 
the floury kernel, all beyond this being more or less injurious. The 
quantity of this kind of food which is required depends upon the nature 
and amount of the work to be done, and upon the constitution and breed 
of each horse. Racehorses are now often induced to eat eight and even 
nine quarterns of oats daily, and hunters in a like proportion, but hacks 
and harness-horses seldom get more than from three to four quarterns 
daily, a bushel and a half per week being about the average, costing about 
4s. 6d. For ponies and horses doing very little work a proportionate 
reduction is made. 
Gruel is made from oatmeal, either with hot or cold water, in the latter 
case hardly deserving the name, but being the form in which it is too 
often given by ignorant and careless stablemen. To make it properly, one 
pound of good oatmeal should be carefully stirred up with sufticient cold 
water to form a thin mixture of the consistence of cream, which will take 
nearly a quart. This is then stirred into three quarts of boiling water, 
and the whole kept stirred over the fire till it thickens, when it is to be 
set on one side to cool, being given when about lukewarm, or, if the horse 
is very much exhausted, a little warmer. It is an excellent restorative for 
a tired and exhausted hunter, and careful grooms provide it ready-made 
against their master’s return from hunting. Raw gruel should only be 
given when time is an object, as, for instance, on a journey, when half 
an hour cannot be devoted to a regular feed. A pint of oatmeal may then 
be stirred up in some cold water, and given from a pail, affording as much 
nourishment as a feed of corn. 
Beans AND Pras may be taken together, inasmuch as the nutritive 
matter contained in them is very nearly the same. Both are extremely 
stimulating to the horse, rendering him prone to inflammation when 
given in inordinate quantities, and always producing more or less 
flatulence. They each contain more than twice as much gluten as oats, 
the proportions, according to Professor Johnstone, in 100 parts, being 
11 in oats, 26 in beans, and 24 in peas. From this cause beans and peas 
supply the waste in the muscles produced by hard work, more completely 
than oats, and the former are therefore extensively used by cab and 
omnibus proprietors, as well as by farmers, who find them cheaper than 
Q 
