102 THE ORANGE COUNTY 



tritive matter supplied by the food must exceed the exhaus- 

 tion which takes place in young animals, to occasion their 

 growth and increase the development of muscle and other 

 tissues,' and with adults it must be equivalent with the ex- 

 haustion to maintain the animal in a normal state. 



It has been ascertained that such vegetable food as affords 

 nourishment to animals abounds most with nitrogen; and 

 that they require the least of those kinds which contain the 

 largest quantities. But here it must be observed there is a 

 limit to the presentation of food abounding too profusely 

 with nutritive properties, which will speedily affect the 

 animal partaking thereof. The blood-vessels will become 

 distended, and other channels overcharged with an excess of 

 their fluid; and upon the slightest appearance of the symp- 

 toms which indicate a disordered state of the circulation, 

 unless medicines are presented which are calculated to relieve 

 the system from the accumulation, aided by temporary 

 abstinence, and indeed change of food, the health of the 

 animal is sure to suffer. 



Professor Playfair, who has made experiments on the quan- 

 tity of nutritious matter contained in different kinds of food 

 supplied to animals, found that in one hundred pounds of oats, 

 eleven pounds represent the quantity of gluten wherewith flesh 

 is formed, and that an equal weight of hay affords eight pounds 

 of similar substance. Both hay and oats contain about sixty- 

 eight per cent, of unazotised matter identical with fat, of 

 which it must be observed a vast portion passes off from the 

 animal without being deposited. By this calculation it ap- 

 pears that if a horse consumes daily four feeds of oats and 

 ten pounds of hay, the nutriment which he derives will be equiv- 

 alent to about one pound eleven ounces of muscle, and thirteen 

 and a half pounds of superfluous matter, which, exclusively of 

 water, nearly approximates the exhaustion of the system by 

 perspiration and the various evacuations. 



It is generally known that the embryo offspring partakes 

 of the health or condition of the dam, therefore the food with 

 which the mother is supplied must affect the foal. This is a 

 subject too commonly disregarded by breeders; although it 

 is constantly demonstrated after the foal comes into life. If 

 a mare be supplied with food which produces relaxation, her 

 foal will be in the same state; and constipation is recognized 

 in the same manner. The propriety of supplying a brood- 

 mare with the best and most suitable kinds of food during 

 pregnancy cannot be too strongly impressed. In the man- 

 agement of young stock every effort should be made, by giv- 



