344 THE ESSENTIALS OF AGRICULTURE 



should be fed in the morning, a very little at the noon hour, 

 and the remainder at night. Many transfer and express com- 

 panies often use no hay at the noon hour. 



446. Silage for horses. Silage is not recommended as a 

 horse feed except by the most careful feeders. Under no cir- 

 cumstances should moldy silage be fed, as both horses and 

 mules are peculiarly susceptible to the injurious effects of molds, 

 some of which are fatal. Frozen silage is likely to produce 

 colic, and very sour silage is apt to produce digestive disturb- 

 ances. Silage for horses. and mules should be made from rela- 

 tively mature corn and be wet enough to prevent the growth of 

 molds and should be fed perfectly fresh. If these precautions 

 are taken, silage makes an excellent feed for brood mares, idle 

 horses, and growing colts, and may be fed up to twenty or twenty- 

 five pounds daily for a thousand-pound horse. In all cases it 

 should be fed in connection with a dry roughage. 



447. How much to feed work horses. A horse at work re- 

 quires more feed than when idle because it is expending more 

 energy. Enough feed must be given to furnish the energy 

 expended, or the horse will lose in weight. Exact rules for 

 feeding cannot be laid down, but horses working moderately, or 

 colts growing rapidly, will require each day about a pound of 

 grain and a pound of roughage for every one hundred pounds 

 of weight. The condition of the animal is a safe guide. If the 

 animal is becoming thin, increase the feed. If it is becoming 

 fat, reduce the grain. The object should be to keep the work 

 animals in a thrifty condition. 



448. Idle horses need plenty of roughage. Idle horses have 

 ample time to consume and digest roughage, and therefore do 

 not require large quantities of grain. It is with this class of 

 horses that economy needs most to be enforced. They should, 

 however, be made moderately fat by spring, so that they will be 

 able to do the heavy work of plowing, cultivating, harvesting, 

 and marketing, as during the work season they cannot eat, 

 digest, and assimilate enough to meet the requirements made 

 of them, and to prevent them from becoming poor. 



