( ARE OF WORK HORSES. 249 



be very beneficial in the case of animals at real hard work. 

 The ration may be composed of various kinds of grain, such 

 as corn, oats, wheat, barley, shorts, bran, molasses, beans, 

 oil meal, gluten feed, and a variety of other feed stuffs. Too 

 much corn should not be fed, as it is claimed to burn out 

 the system in a short period of time. In many places where 

 horses are worked very hard the ration is largely oats and 

 shorts, with some wheat, barley, or corn added. For rough- 

 ness timothy, clover and mixed hay are used. In some in- 

 stances millet, sorghum and oat hay are used quite exten- 

 sively. Firms owning large numbers of horses which are 

 worked very hard usually grind all the grain, cut the rough- 

 age, then moisten it and mix the grain in and feed both at 

 the same time. This method seems to save the horse some 

 labor. Various methods are followed regarding the number 

 of times the animals are fed. Some feed five and six times 

 per day. Generally the animals are fed but three times per 

 day. The watering is usually done before feeding and no 

 water is given for at least two hours after feeding. This 

 method seems to favor more complete digestion of feed. 



Horses at medium work do not require such liberal 

 feeding. Neither do they require so much nitrogenous feed, 

 thus cheaper feeds may be used to good advantage. There 

 is no necessity for grinding the grain or cutting the rough- 

 ness fed, as they have plenty of time to do this work them- 

 selves. They may be fed more corn and barley, which are 

 usually much cheaper feeds than oats, shorts, and other 

 nitrogenous feed stuffs. For roughness, timothy, clover, 

 mixed hay, sorghum, millet, oat hay and small quantities 

 of the various kinds of straws may be used to good advan- 

 tage. Where straw is used to any extent more of the grain 

 must be fed. Regarding the quantity it will depend on the 

 size of the horse and the amount of labor required. Horses 

 at medium work should receive about one pound of grain 

 and one pound of hay for every one hundred pounds live 

 weight of the animal. This may have to be modified to 

 some extent with different horses. Some horses, on account 

 of their conformation, require less feed than others. Horses 

 which are idle part of the time should be fed and handled 

 with much care. They must be maintained as economically 

 as possible while not at work. They do not require very 

 much nitrogenous food. They should always be fed a suffi- 

 cient amount of feed to keep them in real good flesh. Where 



