FOOD OF THE FOAL. 545 



seeds of the oat. It is to be remarked, however, that the seed 

 of the oat contains a much larger proportion of phosphoric 

 acid. Thus there are, in 100 parts of the ash of rye-grass, of 

 phosphoric acid, 6.3 ; in the same quantity of red clover, 6.2 ; 

 in that of white clover, 11.5 ; in that of lucerri, 13.5 ; while in 

 100 parts of the seed of the oat there are 26.5 of phosphoric 

 acid. 



It is allowed to form conjectures in any part of the province 

 of agriculture, only on condition that the truth of such is to 

 be tried on a limited scale before, upon faith in it, any con- 

 siderable hazard is run. It would be easy to try whether foals 

 would thrive equally by the addition of beans or pease in the 

 ground state to their food, as by such an allowance of oats as 

 that above referred to ; young calves thrive well on pease- 

 meal, why then should not colts also? The proportion of 

 phosphoric acid in the bean and the pea is even greater than 

 in the seed of the oat. Thus, in 100 parts of the ash of the 

 bean there are 8.7 parts of lime, 6.6 parts of magnesia, and 

 31.9 parts of phosphoric acid; again, in 100 parts of the ash 

 of the pea, there are 6.3 parts of lime, 6.6 parts of magnesia, 

 and 34.8 parts of phosphoric acid. It is true that all the 

 nutritive substances, both albuminoid and mineral, are much 

 more concentrated in the oat than in the forage grasses or in 

 the artificial grasses ; and something of the better effect of the 

 oat in the nutrition of the foal may be due to this circum- 

 stance. The concentration, however, is equal in the bean and 

 in the pea as in the oat. 



Before leaving this point, it should be remarked that, in so 

 far as the food of the foal is to be selected for its sufficiency to 

 afford the materials of ossification, it might be possible to give 

 too much oats or too much of bean or pea meal ; for the pro- 

 portion of lime in all these grains, compared to their propor- 

 tion of phosphoric acid, is too small to produce the phosphate 



2M 



