OF AGRICULTURE. 173 



find in these the requisite amount of protein com- 

 pounds for keeping up muscular strength of starch, 

 gum, and sugar, for supplying fuel for respiration ; of 

 oil, to prevent exhaustion of fat ; and of Vegetable 

 fibre, to prevent constipation and aid digestion. The 

 perfection of horse provender is, .perhaps, found in 

 good clover or timothy hay, and corn meal ; the hay 

 being cut up and mixed with the meal. 



An occasional change of food is promotive of health, 

 provided only wholesome food is always given. The 

 addition of a little wheat or bran, or a few potatoes, 

 carrots, beets, or pumpkins, cut into fragments, and 

 mixed with their usual food, improve their health. 

 The effects will be seen in a more soft and pliant 

 condition of the skin, and in the improved, glossy 

 appearance of the hair. 



If the object in view is to fatten an animal with 

 the greatest possible rapidity, the chief point in 

 which his food should differ from that of the growing 

 animal, should be in the relative quantity of oily 

 matter contained in it. While it should be adapted 

 to sustain, and even increase the muscular and mem- 

 braneous parts of the body, it should be more especially 

 adapted to the filling up of the fat tissues. It, there- 

 fore, contains as much oil as is consistent with 

 healthful digestion. 



AYe have seen that com is more abundantly supplied 

 with oily matter than any other of the. grains 

 commonly used in feeding. Next to it, the oat is 

 most prominent. There are some other seeds, such 

 as^flax seed, cotton seed and rape sood which abound 

 still more in oil, but, as before stated, they contain 

 far too much to bo wholesome when fed alone ; but 



