316 Food. 



facts of experimental Philosophers. It must prove to every unpreju- 

 diced man, that a prodigious waste takes plaice in the use of corn 

 for Horses, under ail circumstances, when it is not previously ground 

 or bruised. For, though I do not mean to maintain, but that some 

 Horses whose teeth are perfect, and whose manner of eating is slow 

 and gradual, do, in the act of masticating their food, crush nearly 

 all the oats they swallow, yet, there can be no doubt, that in every 

 case, some will escape being broken down by the teeth. And this 

 is the chief reason, why crows and other birds may be observed at all 

 seasons of the year, but especially in winter-time, to use such vigilance 

 in searching the dung of Horses on the public roads, which in every 

 instance, where the animal is fed in part upon grain, amply repays 

 them for their trouble. And it is a familiar remark that our common 

 poultry instinctively prefer tbe corn they find on dung-hills, to dry 

 corn, as if conscious that the former contained an equal portion of 

 nourishment and would give less employment to their gizzards than 

 the latter. Upon the whole then, I cannot help considering this 

 affair in the light of a great national object. For, when it is consi- 

 dered that the consumption of grain by Horses in these Islands is so 

 prodigious, and as it will be admitted by every one who has been in 

 the habit of giving bruised oats io these animals, that they keep their 

 condition and perform hard labour as well upon three fourths of the 

 ordinary allowance of unbruised corn, it follows that there will re- 

 main a great annual saving, for the sustenance of the population of 

 the country. An immense object this, surely, at all times, but more 

 especially in seasons of war and scarcity. But, some ingenious per- 

 sons have suggested, that the saliva may contribute materially to the 

 more perfect digestion of the food, and that, on this account, the 



