FEEDING. 



203 



tage, formerly lecturer in Veterinary Science in the Albert 

 and Glasgow Veterinary Colleges. 



The owner or stud-groom (if this dignitary be trustworthy) 

 should keep the granary door under lock and key. The 

 granary floor should be of large area to admit of constant 

 turning out and spreading. Musty oats are comparatively 

 worthless as food, and frequently cause indigestion, dia- 

 betes, and other disorders. The corn-bin should not be 

 in the stable, where it is very much in the way ; moreover, 

 the horses, having an eye on it, get anxious and uneasy 

 whenever the groom goes near the receptacle. It forms 

 a handy seat no doubt, but if a seat be required it should 

 be one of the sort that falls down flat against the wall. 



If happily possessed of a large stud, watch the markets 

 and, if there be ample, airy, stowage room, take advantage 

 of them and buy for ready money. 



For feeding purposes corn should be quite dry. When 

 purchasing from corn-chandlers or contractors insist upon 

 guaranteed weight and measure. Good oats ought to weigh 

 forty pounds a bushel. The late Mr. Hannington, of 

 Brighton and Portslade, once showed me some marvellously 

 neat, short, and almost round New Zealand oats weighing 

 forty-eight pounds to the bushel, which in a very short 

 space of time wrought wonders on a couple of scarecrow 

 two-year-olds he had received from the then most fashionable 

 and successful training-stable at Newmarket. Horses are 

 fed by measure, not by weight. Inferior oats have a 

 ponderance of husk of no greater feeding value than straw. 

 Good Scotch qualities yield much less of husk than the 

 foreign varieties. Some persons object to black oats, but 

 except that they, the Tartarians especially, are apt to be 

 tally I find them to be quite as good as the white, and fre- 

 quently thinner in the skin. They seldom weigh quite so 



