942 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



become crib-biters. Hay should not be kept in the stable in great quantities, otherwise it becomes im- 

 pregnated with the volatile alkali of the stable, and is hen spoiled. As substitutes for hay, the straw of 

 wheat, barley, oats, and rye are used; but these jre much less nutritive, and ratiier serve to excite 

 mastication by mixing them with other matters, than '.o be depended on for animalization. On hay, 

 when good, many horses subsist; and when no exertions are required of them they are sufficiently 

 nourished by it. 



6018. The grain used as horse food is of various kinds, possessing, it is supposed, different 

 degrees of nutriment, according to their different proportions of gluten, sugar, or farinaceous matter. 

 In South Britain, oats are almost exclusively used a; horse grain; and which, according to the experi- 

 ments of Sir Humphrey Davy, as we have seen (4598.), contain 748 parts of nutritious matter out of 1000. 

 In wheat, 955 jiarts of 1000 are nutritious ; but wheat is seldom given with us except to racers and hunters, 

 or on extraordinary occasions when great excitement is required, when it is sometimes given in the form 

 of bread. Barley is more frequently given than wheat, anc contains 920 parts in 1000 of nutritious particles. 

 Made into malt, where its sugar is evolved, it becomes still more highly nutritious. Barley appears 

 to have been the principal horse food of the ancients. 



6019. The pulse used as horse food, are the seed.) of beans, peas, vetches, &c. Beans are seldom 

 given alone on account of their heating and astrin;;ent qualities, but are mixed with straw or hay, 

 cut into chaff, either whole or broken. 



6020. The roots used as horse food, are such as contain much sugar, but in which the gluten 

 is in small proportion only. Carrots stand deservedly high, on this list. They are favorable to con- 

 dition, as the skin and hair always look well under their use. They are highly nutritious we know, 

 from the fattening that occurs from them. They alofenerate good flesh, as we know horses can work 

 on them, and have their wind increased by their use ; ndeed, so favorable are they to the proper action 

 of the lungs, that a course of carrots will frequently remove the most obstinate coughs. The 

 parsnep has similar properties. Swedish turnips, as having the saccharine particles in abundance, are 

 also found good. Beet-root likewise. 



6021. Mixtures, or mixed food, is formed of seve;al kinds among agriculturists ; and it possesses 

 many advantages, as it can be varied to every taste, and made either cooling as an alterative, or nutritious 

 and stimulating as a tonic. Although it is principally us3d for waggon, post, and farm horses, it would 

 be better were its use more universal. Of this manger leeding, one of the best is formed from a chaff 

 made of one part best meadow or clover hay, and t vo parts wheaten straw; to three bushels of this 

 mixture add one of bruised oats. The importance o^' bruising or flattening the oats is very great. 

 When used whole, the grains are apt to slii) between the teeth or the chaff in mastication. In fact, 

 corn when either given alone, or with chaff, would, in most instances, benefit by bruising. To horses 

 under great exertion, the stomach must be, to a cert lin degree, weakened also ; in such cases, by bruis- 

 ing their corn, not only the work of mastication is mu:h of it spared, but that of the stomach also. In 

 old horses with worn teeth, bruised oats are of great consequence. Fast eating horses do not properly 

 masticate more than one half of their corn ; much of i . remains in the dung so perfectly unalterecl, that it 

 will afterwards vegetate ; and the celebrated agriculturist Curwen states, thatduring his residence inlndia, 

 in a season of scarcity, half famished wretches actually fo lowed the cavalry, and drew their principal sub- 

 sistence from the unchewed grains of corn extracted f -om the excrement of the horses. Of this manger 

 food, three, four, five, or six pecks may be given daily, according to size and exertions required ; and as 

 but little bay is required, so hard worked horses are enabled to lie down much more, instead of standing 

 on their already fatigued limbs to eat hay. 



6022. Cooked food is also now much used by practical Egriculturists for horses. The articles made use 

 of are potatoes, carrots, turnips or parsneps. To horsjs with their digestion weakened by hard work, old 

 age, or other causes, food in sufficient quantities, thus already reduced to a pultaceous mass, resembling 

 chyme, without the loss of time, or the waste of saliv.i, may be very important: for as Curwen very 

 judiciously observes, a horse will consume nearly six lours in eating a stone of hay, whereas he will eat 

 a stone of steameti potatoes in twenty minutes. Horses are observed of themselves to lie down after 

 eating cooked food sooner than other times. 



6023. The quantity of food to be given to i. horse must be regulated by circumstances, 

 the principle of which is the exertions or nature of the work required of him. If this 

 be simply laborious, as drawing of loads, or :arrying of weights, all tliat is requisite is 

 that the food be sufficiently nutritious. The !)ulk from whence such nutriment is gained 

 is not a matter of import : but if such exertion i are to be combined with celerity, as in 

 our racers, hunters, &c. ; it is evident tliat such feeding is best adapted to the end 

 required which combines nutriment without bulk ; and which increases the durability by 

 increasing the mental irritability, and thus gving tone and courage. These are 

 found to be better derived from a proportionate allowance of grain or corn, than any 

 other mode of feeding at present known. It remains only to add, that although ex- 

 perience has fully proved this, in all cases where the exertions are extreme ; yet it has 

 also led to another evil, by introducing a ilcn of treating all horses of value alike. 

 Thus most of the more valuable hacknies, tha carriage horses of the wealthy, &c., 

 are accustomed to be fed, not as though their exertions were moderate ; but as though 

 they were unceasing, to the great injury of i hemselves, and to the destruction of a vast 

 quantity of valuable corn. To thousands of such horses, at least one third of their hay 

 and corn might be advantageously abstracted. 



6024. Too great a quantity of food injures not only the community but the horse also. 

 The stomach becomes distended by over-feeding, and it then becomes weak and inca- 

 pable of a healthy digestion ; crib-biting, hide-bound, and pursiveness follow ; or when 

 the stomach does digest this undue quantity, it generates fulness, which shews itself in 

 inflammations or foulness, appearing in the form of cracks and grease. 



6025. A horse in full work, of whatever kind, will require, according to his size, a peck of sound oats in 

 twenty-four hours ; and when the work is unremittin;;, as in post horses, even more |may be required. 

 Some post horses have an unlimited quantity given them ; but this practice is always erroneous. If they 

 eat more, it serves only to distend the stomach uneiuly, and also to require stronger digestive powers : if 

 they blow on it they leave it, and it is wasted, or a more greedy one swallows it up without mastication ; 

 and both stomach, horse, and master, are thereby rojbed. The oats should be of the very best, with a 

 thin skin, and should weigh from thirty-eight to forty pounds the bushel. They should also be sweet and 

 free from must, and not kiln-dried. When put into a wiele manger and spread about, being first s])rinkled 

 with water, their benefit is increased. No horse will recuire more than eight or ten pounds of hay, in 

 twenty-four hours : from six to eight pounds are usually sufficient. When it can be conveniently done, 

 the quantity of both hay and corn should be divided into four portions. The largest portion both of hay 



