542 Food. 



of grates and fire places. But, as a steaming -apparatus upon a 

 large scale, may be erected by any one, who has a spare building or 

 out-house, at the expence of about forty pounds, there can be no 

 doubt that all proprietors of great works, who keep a number of 

 Horses, would soon find a prodigious saving by feeding their Horses 

 upon steamed provender. And, if this plan should ever be gene- 

 rally adopted, racks will become not only unnecessary but useless, 

 whilst, at the same time, the most scrupulous attention will be found 

 necessary to be paid, to the state of the mangers, which would soon 

 become sour from any remains of the food. 



I may further remark on the subject of Horse provender, that 

 although I am not prepared to maintain that the application of the 

 culinary process to hay and straw, will enable the stomach to elicit a 

 double proportion of nourishment from these articles, as seems to be 

 the case with respect to the potatoe; yet I have no hesitation in 

 asserting that something considerable will be gained in this way; 

 and, further, that other incalculable advantages will spring from the 

 adoption of this mode of feeding to the health of working Horses. 



I have already shewn the prodigious demand of saliva, the chew- 

 ing of dry food occasions, which must be furnished from the blood; 

 and I have also advanced several arguments, rendering it highly 

 probable that this fluid is not necessary, to the process of digestion. 



So that if this point be conceded, it must be evident that the great 

 fountain of all the secretions, will be much less exhausted by soft, 

 than by dry food. And if we take into account, that by this plan of 

 feeding, extreme thirst will be prevented, large draughts of cold 

 water precluded, and a more equable, regular action of the digestive 

 organs effected, there can be little difficulty, I should think, in admit- 

 ting, not only that many diseases will be avoided, but that the 

 longevity of Horses^ will, infallibly, be promoted by means of it. 



