282 



Feeds and Feeding. 



than any other constituent by the amount of exercise or work; 

 the motion of the horse probably determines its more rapid pas- 

 sage through the system. Grandeau states that the results accord 

 with practical experience, which teaches that the digestion of 

 horses is relatively the most efficient when they are resting or 

 doing little work. 



443. Maintenance rations for horses. 1 We have seen that by 

 " maintenance ration" is understood the minimum supply of 

 feed which will keep a horse from losing weight while at rest in 

 the stable with only the small amount of walking exercise neces- 

 sary to preserve health. (133) In Grandeau' s experiments with 

 meadow hay as the sole diet, three horses were kept at rest for 

 periods amounting to four or five months each, half an hour's 

 walking exercise being allowed per day. Each horse received 

 17.6 pounds of hay per day, which proved exactly sufficient to 

 maintain his weight unaltered. The three horses did not digest 

 the hay equally well, and thus each horse was really nourished 

 and its weight maintained by somewhat different amounts of food. 

 The average result for each horse was as follows: 



Maintenance experiments with horses fed meadow hay Grandeau 



and Leclerc. 



Grandeau and Leclerc experimented with many other rations, 

 "but in only a few cases did their maintenance diets exactly meet 

 the wants of the horse. These results are given in the next 

 table; they are less valuable than those obtained with meadow 

 hay, given above. 



1 After Warington, London Live Stock Journal, 1894, p. 49, et seq. 



