Investigations Conceming Oie Horse, 289 



The pulling power of a draft animal is said to be, as a nile, 

 about one-fifth its weight. Its usual effort, in the case of tbe 

 iiorse at least, is seldom iu excess of one-tenth, or about one-half 

 the maximum. One hundred pounds is a common pull for the 

 average horse in draft vehicles. 



In racing the requirement of speed reduces the work performed 

 (carrying the rider) to the smallest amount possible. Low writes: * 

 '^ Wben it is considered that an ounce of additional loading to 

 the same horse may make the difference of a yard or more in half 

 a mile of running, it will be seen how greatly the weigbt borne 

 may affect the issue in tbe case of horses of equal powers." 



451. investigations by Muentz. — Miintz ' determined tbe digesti- 

 bility of a lai'ge number of feeding stuffs for horses at rest receiv- 

 ing only one kuid of feed at a time. The digestion coefficients 

 for the total organic raatter were: Corn, 94.5 per cent.; barley, 

 84. 5 per cent. ; beans, 84. 5 per cent. ; oats, 75. 1 per cent. ; wheat 

 bran, 93.3 per cent.; meadow hay, 43.3 to 61.0 per cent.; wheat 

 straw, 49.4 per cent. ; carrots, 94.6 per cent. Corn and bran thus 

 appeal* to be the most digestible of the common horse feeds. (173) 

 The digestibility attributed to wheat straw is higher than that 

 calculated from WoliFs exi^eriments, in which it was fed in con- 

 nection with other feeds of known digestibility. Twenty-one per 

 cent, of the organic matter was calculated as digestible iu Wolff's 

 experiments made with three lots of straw in six single trials. ^ 



In Miintz' s experiments, 33 pounds of straw were consumed 

 daily by the horse during the last month, supplying 13 pounds of 

 digestible matter, yet the borse died from exhaustion; the ration 

 in fact supplied only .157 pounds of digestible protein, or about 

 one-third of the quantity necessary for maintenance. 



452. Water dr^vik by the horse. — The amount of water drank 

 by the horse varies with the character of the feed, as shown iu the 

 researches of the various experiments. It is smallest when the 

 diet is largely made up of concentrates and largest when roughage 

 only is given. With the mLxed diet employed for the Paris cab 

 horse the average proportion of water to dry matter was 2.1 : 1 



» Breeds of the Doiu stic Animitls of the British Isles. 

 * Warinjjjton, Loudon Live Stock Jourual, 1894, p. 49. 

 » Dietrich and Konig, Futterm., Vol. II, p. 1097. 

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