348 STABLES 



various kindred reasons, much skill and experience are necessary in making 

 a good selection. Indeed, no other horse-corn demands an equally skilled 

 judgment in buying. 



It is of very little moment whether they are black or white if they 

 are their natural colour, thin - skinned, uniform, bright, sweet, clean, 

 heavy, in good hard condition and thoroughly matured. All damaged 

 oats, however mixed, bleached, or otherwise disguised, and all discoloured, 

 musty, or dirty oats, should be avoided. 



Barley. — In recent years, owing to the relatively low price of much 

 of tlie imported barley, and of home - grown barley unsuitable for malt- 

 ing pui'poses, barley has been used to a considerable extent as a horse 

 food. It is used in the form of malt, boiled barley, damped barley-meal, 

 and in the dry, crushed state. For every -day use damped barley -meal 

 and dry crushed barley are chiefly employed. In either way it answers 

 very well. Many people who would not think of giving barley have 

 been using it without realizing it. For years many samples of oats have 

 contained a large percentage of barley. After feeding the Birmingham 

 Corporation cart-stud with 8 lbs. barley per horse per day in place of 

 8 lbs. oats for a period of eighteen months, the conclusion arrived at 

 was that, given in this amount, along with maize and beans, no real 

 practical difference could be recognized between barley, when so used, 

 and oats. It is frequently the most economical food on the market, the 

 relative prices of maize and barley often alternating in this respect. 

 Where much barley is given, the faeces of the horses fed upon it are 

 generally rather softer in character than the fseces of those fed on oats, 

 but the writer has failed to observe any itching condition of the skin, 

 as is sometimes ascribed to its use. 



Good feeding barley should be bright, sweet, clean, hard, and dry. 

 Much of the imported barley contains a large proportion of dirt, and in 

 that case it should Ije thoroughly cleaned before being used for horse food. 



Maize. — Maize has been extensively used for many years as an article 

 of horse food, and there are now few large studs for which it does not 

 form a portion of the provender. Along with hay, it will maintain 

 cart-horses in fair condition, but it is too deficient in nitrogenous con- 

 stituents to form a typical horse food, and to rectify this deficiency there 

 should always be given along with it a certain proportion of pease or 

 beans. By giving the maize and beans in the right proportions, a mixture 

 can be made possessing a similar nutritive ratio to oats, and this may, 

 with impunity, be substituted for oats in the food of mature horses, but 

 not for that of young growing animals, for which it would not possess 

 a sufficient proportion of ash constituents. 



