228 THE HORSE. 
it were not more expensive. Horses do not keep fat so well on oats along 
if at hard labour, as on corn meal, or a mixture of the two. 
‘Straw is best for bedding. If salt hay is used, horses eat it, as not 
more than a bag of 200 pounds of salt is used in three months. Glauber 
salt is allowed occasionally as a laxative in the spring of the year, and 
the animals eat it voraciously. If corn is too new, it is mixed with an 
equal weight of rye bran, which prevents scouring. Jersey yellow corn 
is best, and horses like it best. The hay is all cut, mixed with meal, and 
fed moist. No difference is made between day and night work. The 
travel is continuous, except in warm weather, when it is sometimes 
divided, and an interval of rest allowed. In cold weather the horses are 
watered four times a day in the stable, and not at all on the road. In 
warm weather, four times a day in the stables, and are allowed a sip on 
the middle of the route. 
“The amount that the company exact from each horse is all that he 
can do. Inthe worst of the travelling they fed 450 bags per week of 
meal, of 100 pounds each. They now feed 400. The horses are not 
allowed to drink when warm. If allowed to do so, it founders them. In 
warm weather a bed of sawdust is prepared for them to rollin. Number 
of horses, 335. Speed varies, but is about four miles an hour. Horses 
eat more in cold weather than in warm, but the difference cannot be 
exactly determined.” 
From this report it may be gathered that it is possible to keep horses 
doing hard but slow work upon hay and Indian meal, and as in this 
country the former article is very superior to that made in America, there 
is every reason to believe that the latter might be used to greater advan- 
tage when mixed with it. 
The price of Indian corn per bushel in this country is generally a trifle 
higher than that of the best English oats, and, therefore, unless it went much 
further it would be no economy to use it. As, however, it appears from 
the above report that from fourteen to twenty pounds will suffice to keep 
« hard-working omnibus horse, it follows that its use is very economical 
if it can be made to answer the purpose equally well with our English 
corn. 
BaRLEY AND WHEAT are generally too costly to compete with oats and 
beans in feeding horses ; but sometimes the former is malted, and in that 
state it is found to fatten farm horses, even if it does not contribute to 
the support of their muscular systems. Horses greedily devour wheat 
either in the shape of grain or made into bread, but in the former state it 
is very indigestible. It is so seldom that wheat is cheaper in proportion 
to its weight than oats, that unless some great advantage could be clearly 
shown to accrue from the use of it, no one would dream of employing it 
to feed horses, and as there is every reason to believe that it is not even 
nearly ejual to them, we may dismiss it from our consideration. The 
husk separated from the meal in the shape of bran is a very important 
article in all stables, having a cooling effect from its laxative properties 
when made into a mash with water. Dry bran is often given with sliced 
earrots, with which it makes an excellent food for slow working horses ; 
but there is not any great amount of nourishment in it by itself. Bran 
mash is made either hot or cold. In either case a bucket is half filled 
with bran, and then as much water as it will absorb is poured upon it, 
and if hot it is put by till nearly cold, being closely covered up in the 
meantime. All horses which are not inclined to scour should, when they 
wze kept on hay and corn, have a mash once a week, selecting the night 
