STUD BOOK. 99 



THE HORSE'S FOOD. 



This should be of oats and hay of the best quality; beans 

 for hard-working horses, occasionally varied with carrots or 

 Swedes; bran mashes; and, under some circumstances, lin- 

 seed grueL Many persons are not aware that the price of 

 musty corn and bad hay is vastly dearer than that of the 

 same commodities of good quality and that the worse the 

 quality the higher the cost. It is so, nevertheless for 

 whether the purchaser of inferior articles bargain for it or 

 not, he always purchases with them indigestion, foulness of 

 blood, looseness of the bowels, general debility, and glanders; 

 all of these being too costly to be purchased in any stable. 

 We once knew a farmer whose practice it was to sell all his 

 best articles, and keep the refuse of his farm for his own 

 horses; the consequence was, that he never was without 

 glanders or some other disease in his stable; and there was 

 not a carter in the parish who did not give his team a wide 

 berth wherever he met it with his own horses. It was the 

 man's system, nevertheless; he either could not see its bane- 

 fulness, or he would not alter it; so he died at last from it, 

 having caught a glanderous infection from his own stable. 

 Mr. Spooner, in speaking of this subject, thus testifies his 

 own experience : " I have known a serious loss sustained by 

 a proprietor of post and coach horses, from keeping a con- 

 siderable stock of oats, and neglecting to turn them; many 

 horses became glandered and farcied, apparently in conse- 

 quence of this circumstance." 



Much has been said of late respecting the advantage of 

 bruising oats, and various machines are much in vogue for 

 the purpose. Mr. Spooner says of them, "they are apt to 

 produce diarrhoea, especially if the animal is worked hard." 

 It is further alleged that many horses will not eat them with 

 an appetite: and the opponents to the system go further, 

 urging that unbruised oats excite a flow of saliva, necessary to 

 perfect digestion, which is not the case with those which are 

 bruised. The explanation to the first of these questions sup- 

 plies a very strong recommendation. The stomach, having 

 derived a sufficient quantity of nourishment from a moderate 

 portion, does not require more. With reference to the flow 

 of the saliva, without entering upon the question how far it 

 is necessary to assist digestion, no animal can swallow its 

 food without a sufficiency of saliva to assist the act of deglu- 

 tition; and it is not recommended to reduce the oats to flour, 



