FARMERS' REGISTER. 



471 



iheni ; iliat horses, with whins, nnd one feed of 

 corn, were in as aood order as with two feeds and 

 siraiv;* thai all tlie straw and one feed of oats 

 were thus saved ; that, valuinir these at seven- 

 pence a day each lioise, the saving in seventeen 

 weeivs anioinited, on tiie six liorses, to £17 17s. — 

 from which, lieduciiiig five shillings a week, as the 

 expense ol' cutting and bruising, there would re- 

 main £13 12s. as the product of two acres.j 



Dry herbage. — !n this country the dry herbage 

 consists of hay and straw. In France, the vine 

 leaves are collected and stored lor winier fodder. 

 In the West Indies, the tops of ihe sugar cane ate 

 deemed highly nutritious, after they are dried and 

 sweated a little in heaps. In a season of abun- 

 dance, ricks of the cane tops, the but-ends in, are 

 made in the corner of each field, to supply the 

 want of pasturage and other food. These are 

 chopped small, and mixed with common salt, or 

 sprinkled with a solution of molasses. Maize is 

 sometimes made into hay. '" When Guinea or 

 Indian corn is planted in May, and cut in July, in 

 order to bear seed that year, that cutting properly 

 tedded, makes an excellent hay, which cattle pre- 

 ler to meadow hay. in like manner, alter the corn 

 has done bearing seed, the alter crop ILirnishes 

 abuntiance of that kind of Ibdder, which keeps 

 well in ricks lor two or three years. J " In some 

 places, dried ferns, reeds, flags, small branches or 

 twigs are dried and used as substitutes li^r hay."§ 

 Doubtless there are many other plants made into 

 Ibdder in ditierent pans of the world. Where 

 Canary corn is raised, the chaff and straw are 

 given to horses, from which it is said they derive 

 more nutriment than from hay. 



Hay. — In Scotland most of the hay used for 

 horses is composed of ryegrass, or ryegrass and clo- 

 ver. The natural hay, which is not very much 

 used here, contains several plants. Much of the 

 hay in Scotland is bad. A good deal is grown on 

 poor land, and this is soft, dvvaifisb, and destitute 

 of nutriment. But hay in general is not well made. 

 In the south it is cured with more skill, and pre- 

 served with more care. The best we have in the 

 west of Scotland is procured from Stirlingshire, 

 and is composed of ryegrass and a little clover. 



in England clover-hay stands in hish repute for 

 hard-working draught horses. In the market it 

 brings 20 per cent, more than meadow or ryegrass 

 hay. Hard upland meadow is pieferred for hunt- 

 ers and racers, because I suppose they are apt to 

 eat loo much of the clover. In Scotland, ryegrass, 

 or a mixture of ryegrass and clover, is considered 

 the best lor all liorses. flere we have almost no 

 good meadow hay, and most of that made from 

 the natural grasses is hardly worth preserving. 



Good hay is about a year old, long and large, 

 iiard, touirh ; its color inclining to green, rather 

 than to white ; it has a sweet taste and pleasant 

 smell ; the seed is abundant ; inlused in hot water, 

 it produces a rich dark-colored tea. The less dust 



* The "order," I suspect, would be nothing to 

 boast of. 



t British Husbandry, Vol. i. p. 135. See rdso the 

 Annals of Agriculture, Vol. xxxv. p. 13. Ency. Brit. 

 art. Agriculture. Farmer's Mag. Vol. xx. p. 282. 

 Comp. Grazier, fifth ed. p. 559 ; and Quar. Journal of 

 Agric. No. xi. 



t Bracy Clarke's Pharmacopa?ia Equina, 



§ Blaine's Outlines of Vet. Med. 



it has about it the belter ; but, from the soil, and 

 the way in which hay is made here, it is seldom 

 Iree from dust. In damp weather hay absorbs 

 much moisture, and weighs a good deal the hea- 

 vier. In Eriixlaiid, the market weight of new hay 

 is sixty |)ourids per truss till the 4ih of September. 

 The truss! of old hay contains only tiliy-six pounds. 



New hay is purgative and debilitating. It seems 

 to be difficult ol digestion. The horse is Ibnd of it, 

 and will eat a lar^e quantity, much of which pass- 

 es through liim little altered by the digestive pro- 

 cess, and |)robably retaining a good deal of its nu- 

 triment. On the other hand, hay which is very 

 old, is dry, tasteless, brittle. 'J'he horse rejects 

 much, and eats little. Old hay is much recom- 

 mended ; but by old, I suppose is meant not new. 

 In tlie south, perhaps stacked hay does not so 

 soon degenerate as in the north, where it is cer- 

 tainly old enough in one year. 



Heated hay, sometimes termed mowburnt, is that 

 which has undergone too much lermentation. In 

 curing hay it is thrown in a heap to sweat, that is, 

 till a slight degree of fermentation takes place, 

 which is arrested by exposing the hay to the air. 

 This, it appears, is necessary for its preservation 

 in the stack. But sometimes the process is carried 

 too lar, or, more frequently, it is re-excited, after 

 the hay is stored past. Hay that has been tiius 

 injured is not all alike. Some of it acquires a very 

 sweet sugary taste; and this portion is eaten; some 

 is changed in color to a dark-brown, and has its 

 texture altered ; it is short, brittle as rotten wood, 

 and has a disagreeable taste; this portion seems 

 to be rejected ; another portion of the same stack 

 is mouldy, stiiiking, quite rotten, and no horse will 

 eat this. All kinds of hay, however good origi- 

 nally, may suder this injury. When the damage 

 has been slight, most horses will eat certain por- 

 tions of the hay very greedily ; they seem to be 

 fond of it i'oT the first week, but subsequently it is 

 rejected in disgust. Upon the whole, 1 believe it 

 is the most unprofitable lodder that horses can re- 

 ceive. When very bad, it is dear, though obtain- 

 ed in a gift, lor it often does much mischief, par- 

 ticularly to horses of fast-work. Much is wasted, 

 and that which is eaten does little good. It is 

 almost as poisonous as it is nutritious. Slow 

 draught-horses may not, indeed, be greatly injured 

 by it. But good wheat-straw may be belter. I'o 

 fast, hard-working horses, such as those employed 

 in mails, it is a strong diuretic ; and its diuretic 

 power does not diminish by use. Hay forms an 

 important part of the horse's Ibod, particularly of 

 those horses that receive no roots nor boiled meal. 

 Bad hay will change the horse's appearance and 

 condition in two days, even when he has an un- 

 limited quantity of corti. By bad hay, I msan 

 that which is unwholesome. It may be poor, 

 having littie nutriment, but sweet and digestible, 

 without being pernicious. But good straw is bel- 

 ter than unvvholesome hay lor all kinds of horses. 

 The kidneys are excited to extraordinary activity. 

 The urine, which, in this disease, is always per- 

 fectly transparent, is discharged very Ireejuenily 

 and in copious proflision. The horse soon be- 

 comes hidebound, emaciated, and leeble. His 

 thirst is excessive. He never refuses water, and 

 he drinks as if he would never give over. The 

 disease does not produce death, but it renders the 

 horse useless, and ruins the constitution. Should 

 he catch cold, or lake ihe influenza which prtvuil- 



