PREPARATION OF FOOD. 329 



up without rain. If hay is salted as it is put up, its digestibility 

 and palatableness will be much improved. Mowburned or 

 molded hay is very injurious, and should not be given the 

 horse. Any kind of hay will do to cut for chaff to give meal, 

 shorts, etc., with. Even straw is better for this purpose than 

 to feed the horse on grain alone. 



The blades of corn, pulled and cured in the summer, are su- 

 perior to any of the grasses for hay. They are the best article 

 that can be given the sporting-horse or the stallion. It will 

 pay well to pull them v/hen the price of hay is high, or to feed 

 valuable horses. 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 



The 'feed of the horse is usually given with no other prepa- 

 ration than that necessary to take care of it. And when we 

 see that horses perform all manner of work with ease and suc- 

 cess fed in this way, we naturally become skeptical on the 

 theories we often see put forth in advocacy of more artificial 

 systems of feeding. The horse's digestion is very powerful, 

 and when healthily performed, needs but little assistance from 

 art. 



The feed of the horse may be cut, boiled, bruised, steeped, 

 steamed, and even baked. Hay and straw are often cut, and 

 there are many advantages claimed for cut feed over the com- 

 mon way of feeding. In some particulars these claims are 

 doubtless just. I shall only mention a few advantages of cut 

 feed. The cut hay or straw is always mixed with the grain ; 

 the hay is given in quantity and manner that the horse is not 

 so likely to waste it ; the grain given with the chaff is better 

 chewed than when given alone, and, consequently, is better and 

 more easily digested ; old horses can grind their feed better 

 when given as chop-feed than the common way ; the horse is 

 not so apt to eat his feed too fast when the grain is mixed with 

 the cut hay ; hay or straw which would be scarcely eaten by 

 the horse is readily taken when given as chop-feed. For fur- 



