OF FARRIERY. 



607 



OATS. 



In almost every part of Great Britain, the 

 oat has been selected as that portion of the 

 food which is to afford to the Horse his prin- 

 cipal nourishment. It contains seven hundred 

 and forty-three parts out of a thousand of nu- 

 tritive matter. The oat should be old, heavy, 

 dry, and sweet. The new oat will weigh ten 

 or fifteen per cent, more than the old oat ; but 

 the difference consists principally in watery 

 matter, which is gradually evaporated. The 

 new oat is not so easily ground down by the 

 leeth as the old one, and forms a more glutin- 

 ous mass, difficult to digest, and when eaten 

 in considerable quantities, is apt to become so 

 unwholesome, as to occasion colic, and even 

 staggers. Oats should be plump, bright in 

 colour, and free from unpleasant taste or smell. 

 The musty smell of wetted or damaged corn, 

 is caused by a fungus which grows upon the 

 seed, and which has an injurious effect on the 

 urinary organs, and often on the intestines, 

 producing profuse staling, inflammation of the 

 kidney or colic, and inflammation of the 

 bowels. This musty smell may be removed 

 by kiln-drying the oat, but care should be 

 used that too great a degree of heat is not 

 employed. It should be sufficient to destroy 

 the fungus, without injuring the vitality of the 

 seed. The kiln-burnt oat, however, is not so 

 grateful to the animal ; it. acquires a heating 

 quality, and not unfrequently produces inflam- 

 mation of the eyes, and mangy affections of 

 the skin. If the unthreshed oat-straw were 

 cut for chaff, it would save the expence of 

 threshing. Oat-straw is better than barley- 

 straw, but does not contain so much nourish- 

 ment as that of wheat. When the Horse is 

 fed on hay and oats, the quantity of the oats 



[ must vary with his size and the work to be 

 performed. Nine or ten pounds of oats a day 

 will be a fair allowance for a Horse of fifteen 

 hands one or two inches high, in moderate 

 work, with a proportionate quantity of hay. 

 In summer, when the Horse is given green 

 food daily, reduce his corn one half. 



BARLEY. 



Barley is a common food of the Horse on 

 various parts of the continent, and, until the 

 introduction of the oat, seems to have consti- 

 tuted almost his only food. It is more nutri- 

 tious than oats, containing nine hundred and 

 twenty parts of nutritive matter in every 

 thousand. There seems, however, to be 

 something necessary besides a great propor- 

 tion of nutritive matter, in order to render any 

 substance wholesome, strengthening, or fatten 

 ing. Except where Horses are very hardly 

 worked, barley does not seem in our country 

 to agree with them so well as oats. They are 

 more subject to inflammatory complaints, and 

 particularly to surfeit and mange. When 

 barley is given, the quantity should not ex- 

 ceed a peck daily. It should be always 

 bruised, and the chaff should consist of equal 

 quantities of hay and barley straw, a«d not 

 cut too short. If the farmer has a quantity of 

 spotted or unsaleable barley which he wishes 

 thus to get rid of, he must very gradually ac- 

 custom his Horses to it, or he will probably 

 produce serious illness among them. For 

 Horses that are recovering from illness, barley, 

 in the form of malt, is often serviceable, as 

 tempting the appetite and recruiting the 

 strength. It is best given in mashes; water, 

 considerably below the boiling heat, being 

 poured upon it, and the vessel or pail kept 

 covered for half an hour. 



