396 FOOD. 



on the farm have from ten to fourteen pounds, and the huntei 

 from twelve to sixteen. There are no efficient and safe substi- 

 tutes for good oats ; but, on the contrary, we are much incHned 

 to believe tliat they possess an invigorating property which if 

 not found in other food. 



Oatmeal will form a poultice more stimulating than one com- 

 posed of linseed- meal alone — or they may be mingled in different 

 proportions, as circumstances require. In the form of gruel it 

 constitutes one of the most important articles of diet for the sick 

 horse — not, indeed, forced upon him, but a pail containing it 

 being slung in his box, and of which he will soon begin to drink 

 when water is denied. Few grooms make good gruel ; it is 

 either not boiled long enough, or a sufficient quantity of oatmeal 

 has not been used. The proportions should be, a pound of meal 

 thrown into a gallon of water, and kept constantly stirred until 

 it boils, and five minutes afterwards. 



White-water, made by stirring a pint of oatmeal in a pail of 

 water, the chill being taken from it, is an excellent beverage foi 

 the thirsty and tired horse. 



Barley is a common food of the horse on various parts of the 

 Continent, and, until the introduction of the oat, seems to have 

 constituted almost his only food. It is more nutritious than oats, 

 containing nine hundred and twenty parts of nutritive matter in 

 every thousand. There seems, however, to be something neces- 

 sary besides a great proportion of nutritive matter, in order tc 

 render any substance wholesome, strengthening, or fattening : 

 therefore it is that, in many horses that are hardly worked, and. 

 indeed, in horses generally, barley does not agree with them so 

 well as oats. They are occasionally subject to inflammatory 

 complaints, and particularly to surfeit and mange. 



When barley is given, the quantity should not exceed a peck 

 daily. It should always be bruised, and the chaff should consist 

 of equal quantities of hay and barley-straw, and not cut too short. 

 If the farmer has a quantity of spotted or unsaleable barley that 

 he wishes thus to get rid of, he must very gradually accustom 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, con- 

 siderably below the boiling heat, being poured upon it, and the 

 vessel or pail kept covered for half an hour. 



Grains fresh from the mash-tub, either alone, or mixed with 

 oats or chaff, or both, may be occasionally given to horses of slow 

 draught ; they would, however, afibrd very insufficient nourish 

 ment for horses of quicker or harder work. 



Wheat is, in Great Britain, more rarely given than barley 



