C4 CHAPTEE 5. 



possibly be supplied. But it is as well to remember that most artificial 

 stimiilants cease to have any effect after a time. 



The chief objection to the use of such foods, even in cases where they 

 act beneficially, consists in the excessive price at which they are sold. 

 The component parts of these foods are easily ascertained by analysis, 

 and, indeed, in most cases are well known. The owner of horses may 

 as well make them for himself as pay a hundred or two hundred per cent, 

 over their value. 



On this subject the Author has ventured to extract the following sen- 

 sible remarks from the valuable work on ' The Horse in the Stable and 

 the Field,' by Stonehenge, pp. 231-2 : 



" During the last five or six years various artificially prepared foods 

 have been introduced to the notice of the public, under the names of 

 ' Thorley's Food for Cattle,' ' Henri's Horse and Cattle Food,' (fee. The 

 advertisements of the patentees would lead to the belief that their horse 

 and cattle foods contain more real nourishment than the various kinds of 

 food which have hitherto been given to horses and cattle, but chemical 

 analysis shows the incorrectness of these statements. 



" The following observations in the ' Field ' of the 18th of February, 

 1860, put the matter in its true light, and show that as a mere article of 

 food these preparations are far from economical : 



" ' It is not surprising, when artificial foods should thus come to be 

 adopted as so much fattening power, that various mixtures should be 

 employed largely impregnated with stimulating substances. They are 

 thus made extremely palatable to the animal, who naturally enough 

 thrives upon the good things provided for him. We will not now stop 

 to inquire how far this stimulus may be permanently beneficial, even 

 admitting the temporary advantage ; our object is simply a cash account. 

 If the price of cake, ranging at about £10 a ton, forms the limits from 

 which any ordinary return can be expected, how can an article, sold at a 

 price realising from 300 to 400 per cent, on the cost price of the mate- 

 rials of which it is composed, ever bring any return at all? 



" ' Such savoury condiments, dished up at from .£4:0 to £50 a ton, 

 have no more fattening powers than the ordinary cakes and meal, of 

 which, indeed, their bulk is principally composed. Locust beans, the 

 different oil-cakes, and Indian corn form the basis of these cattle foods 

 so often paraded before the public, with which sundry stimulants, making 

 a kind of curry-powder concoction, are mixed up. This, though it may 

 be highly agreeable, yet at the price above stated forms a most costly 

 addition to the ordinary feeding cost, and an animal once pampered on 

 such material can hardly fall back on ordinaiy food ; hence the price of 

 fattening is greatly enhanced, but without any increase of the saleable 

 carcass, for there is a natural limit in this direction. 



" ' A compound at £40 a ton will make no more flesh than oil-cake at 

 £10 ; but if the fanner approves of, and will have, the compound, let 

 him simply mix the materials himself. There is no secret in the com- 

 position, for the test is at hand in a simple analysis. 



" ' The following is the ordinary formula : 



I 



