CHAPTER XIX 



FEEDS FOR HORSES 



I. CARBONACEOUS CONCENTRATES 



In most localities the usual ration for horses is restricted to but 

 one or two kinds of grain with no more variety in the roughages. 

 Due to custom and prejudice, many insist that these particular feeds 

 are by far the most economical and satisfactory that can be fed. Yet, 

 in traveling from one district or country to another we find a large 

 number of feeds successfully used for horses. 



In the northern Mississippi valley the ration is quite generally oats 

 and timothy hay, while in the South corn is the chief concentrate, with 

 dried corn leaves, legume hay, and other roughages. On the Pacific coast 

 crushed barley is the common grain used, with hay from the cereals. In 

 Europe various oil cakes and beans are often fed. In Arabia, Persia 

 and Egypt barley is the only grain, while in sections of India, a kind 

 of pea, called gram, is the usual food. In some districts very unusual 

 feeds are used for horses. Bamboo leaves are fed as a complete sub- 

 stitute for ordinary grass and hay in the hill districts of eastern Burmah. 

 In France, Spain, and Italy, besides the grasses, the leaves of limes and 

 grape vines, the tops of acacia, and seeds of the carob-tree have all been 

 employed. "In some sterile countries," according to Loudon, 1 "horses 

 are forced to subsist on dried fish, and even vegetable mould. In parts 

 of India, salt, pepper, and other spices are made into balls, as big as 

 billiard balls, with flour and butter, and thrust down the animal's 

 throat." 



As further shown in this chapter, a long list of feeds are well- 

 suited to horses. Hence, to feed these animals economically, due atten- 

 tion must be given to the prices of the various feeds which are locally 

 available, and a combination selected which will maintain them in good 

 condition at a minimum expense. 



473. Oats. This grain, so keenly relished by horses, is the standard 

 with which all other concentrates are compared. (223) Oats are the 

 safest of all feeds for the horse, due to the hull, which, tho furnishing 

 little nutriment, gives the grain such bulk that not enough can be eaten 

 at one time to cause digestive trouble from gorging. In the stomach, 

 oats form a loose mass, which is easily digested, while such heavy 

 feeds as corn tend to pack, causing colic. 



As shown previously (463), unless oats are high in price and crushing 

 or grinding can be done cheaply, such preparation will not pay for horses 



Encyclopedia of Agr., 1886; Article, Feeding of Horses. 



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