THE ECONOMIC FEEDING OF WORKING HORSES. 953 
No. 16.—THE ECONOMIC FEEDING OF WORKING 
HORSES. 
By T. U. Waxroy, B.Sc, F.C.S., F.LC. 
(Read Wednesday, 12 January, 1898.) 
Iz is a generally accepted principle that, in order to keep a 
working horse in good condition, a food rich in nitrogenous 
material must be used, or, as it is sometimes expressed, the 
“albumenoid ratio” must be bigh. This ratio is defined as the 
numerical relation of the digestible nitrogenous matter in the 
food to the digestible carbo hydrates (including any small quantity 
of fat, calculated into its equivalent of carbo hydrate, but not 
including any digestible fibre). ~ Thus a ratio such as 1:5 is said 
to be high, while a ratio of 1: 12 is regarded as low. 
For farm horses, Wolff, the recognised German authority, 
recommends a daily diet, containing the following quantities of 
nutriment per 1,000 Ib. live weight :— 
1:56 lb. digestible albumenoids. 
11:19 lb. digestible carbohydates (including 0:5 Ib. fat). 
Albumenoid ratio, 1 :7. 
When horses are very hard worked, he recommends an increased 
diet, still richer in nitrogen :— 
2-5 lb. digestible albumenoids. 
13°8 lb. digestible carbohydrates. 
Albumenoid ratio, 1 : 54. 
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b 
The object of the present paper is to give a short account of 
some feeding trials conducted on a very large scale, which prove 
that at least, under certain conditions, a high diet is not essential 
to the performance of hard work or the maintenance of good 
condition, provided sufficient nutritive food be given. 
In Fiji, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company have about 1,000 
head of farm horses, which until a few years ago were fed chiefly 
on oats and maize, with some green cane tops in addition. But 
this did not prove satisfactory in the trying tropical climate. 
Sickness was frequent, and the death-rate high, while the charge 
for fodder was very heavy. As large quantities of waste molasses 
were available, it was thought well to investigate whether the 
sugar in this material might not be advantageously used as a 
substitute for some of the starch in the ordinary food. 
