FOOD 95 



the animal without food for several hours, and then make some of the mash 

 into small balls and place one after another into its mouth. In this way 

 the creature shortly becomes accustomed to the flavour, and will offer no 

 objection to the compound in future. 



GREEN FOOD 



The practice of turning horses out to grass during a certain period of 

 the year is adopted with the idea that the animals will be materially bene- 

 fited thereby. It is affirmed that the succulent herbage is cooling to the 

 system, that the animals' legs and feet are considerably improved by the 

 change of position and diet, and, in short, that the practice is altogether 

 advantageous and free from objection. Experience, however, teaches that 

 the effects of a run of grass very commonly fall short of the owner's antici- 

 pations. Everything, indeed, depends upon the circumstances in which 

 the animal is placed, and the provisions which are made for shelter. In 

 addition, the character of the soil and the quality of the herbage will have 

 to be taken into account. In dry seasons, hard ground and scanty herbage 

 are by no means conducive to the improvement of the animal's condition, and 

 certainly the legs and feet are not likely to benefit by the violent exercise 

 in which the animal commonly indulges when first turned into the pasture. 

 Again, animals which have been engaged in hard work and been supplied 

 with large quantities of concentrated food are likely to suffer from the 

 sudden change to a diet containing a very large proportion of water, 

 necessitating the consumption of a large quantity in order to make up for 

 the deficiency of concentrated nutriment. The distention of the stomach 

 and intestines by the amount of food consumed leads to pressure upon 

 the diaphragm, which is injurious to the respiratory organs; and at the 

 time when it was customary to turn hunters out to grass as soon as the 

 season was over, it was not uncommon for a considerable number of the 

 animals to be brought up in the autumn suffering from " broken wind ". 

 To get the full benefit from a change of diet from stable food to the 

 meadow grass there should be proper arrangements for the animal's shelter, 

 so placed that he can take advantage of it, should he feel inclined, to escape 

 from wind, sun, or rain; and a moderate allowance of dry food, oats, bran, 

 and hay should always be insisted on. This system has the advantages of 

 giving the animal complete rest and change of position, with the addition 

 of a proportion of succulent diet to the ordinary stable rations, and it is 

 decidedly to be preferred to the haphazard system of turning a horse out to 

 grass for several months and leaving him to take his chance. 



