476 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



any meal. It does very well as a maslicant ; and 

 niay be mingled with oats, beans, or barley to 

 make the horse grind them, but it cannot yield 

 much nutriment, and many horses will not eat it. 

 Gruel IS made from oatmeal. It is very useful 

 for sick horses : and, afiera dayofsevere exerlion 

 when the horse will nouakesolid food, gruel is die 

 best, thing he can have. Few stableiiien are able 

 lo make it i)roperly. The meal is never sufficiently 

 incorporated with the water. One gallon of good 

 gruel may be made from a pound of meal, which 

 should be thrown into cold water, set on the fire 

 and stirred till boiling, and afterwards permitted to 

 simmer over a gentle fire till the water is t|uite 

 thick. It is not gruel at all if the meal subside, 

 and leave the vi'ater transparent. Bracy Clarke 

 recommends that the meal be well triturated with 

 a liitle cold water, in a beechen bowl, by a heavy 

 wooden pestle. He thinks the trituration "necessary 

 to ed'ect a union between the water and some 



clear that barley is not much, if at all, inferior to 

 oats. The price should influence the choice. Spot- 

 ted or dark-colored barley, thou<;h rejected for 

 malting, may be quite guod enough fur corn, and 

 it is olien to he bouglit at the price of oais. It 

 weighs about fifty pounds the bushel. Giving 

 weight lor weight of oais, at foiiy pounds the 

 bushel, there are only ten leeds, while barley gives 

 twelve and onc-hulf 



Boiled barley is used chiefly among stage, cart, 

 and road-horses. It is rarely given to ilie racer 

 or to the hunter, except when sick. Boiled lo 

 jelly, it is good for a hard dry cough, when there is 

 no lever. 



Barleymash — ^ju?t barley steeped or boiled. 



Malted barley is that wliicli has been germinat- 

 ed. It is steeped or moisiened, and spread in a 

 layer till it sprout. In iliatstaie it is given, though 

 not very often. Horses are very (otid of it, and 

 they will take a little ol' this when they refuse al- 



consiituent of the meal. This seems to be one ofj most everything else. But I do nut know how 



the " not a few useful and important discoverie 

 for which Mr. Clarke so clamorously demands our 

 homage. 



Oatenbread is sometimes given to sick horses. 

 It may tempt the appetite and excite a disposition 

 to feed. 



-Barley. — There is much difference of opinion 

 concerning this article. Some consider it quite as 

 good as oats in every respect : others allege that 

 ii is too laxative ; others that it is heating; some 

 iliat it is cooling; and some that it is flatulent. In 

 Spain, and in some other places, horses and mules 



they would do upon it for constant use. 



3JaU is used a good deal on the continent, and 

 is supposed to be highly nutritious, more so than 

 the raw barley. But in this country the heavy 

 duty upon malt forbids its use fiir horses ; and it is 

 not certain that the process of mailing improves 

 the grain so much as to pay its cost. 



iMalt dust, \n some places termed cumins, is 

 thai portion of barley which sprouts in germina- 

 tion. It is generally given to cattle, but he rses 

 sometimes get it mixed witii the boiled meal. 

 They seem to like it very well. I do not know 



receive no corn but barley; in this couniry it is any more about it 



very often boiled and given once a-day, and some- i Grains, the refuse of breweries, are sometimes 



times alitlleisgiven raw with every ration of oais; ' given lo horses, and are eaten greedily ; but it is 



and one or two proprietors have used, and perhaps i alleged that, when given constanily, and so as to 



still use it to the entire exclusion of oats. 1 can- 1 form the bulk of the corn, they produce general 



not, from personal observation, tell what are its i rottenness, which I suspect in this case means 



effects when given habitually without mixtuie. i disease of the liver. They are also blamed for 



But when given along with a (ew oats or beans, producing staggers and founder. 



so as to form only a pait of the feed, I know that j Barley dust Is rather betler than corn dust, but 



barley has none of the evil properties ; scribed to 

 it. I am daily among a large number of horses, 

 bolh fast and slow-workers, who receive a consi- 

 derable quantity in ihe course of the twenty-lour 

 hours. At first, it relaxes the bowels a lillle, and 



it is filter for cattle or swine than horses. 



Wheat. — There is a general prejudice against 

 wheat as horse-corn, especially in its raw slate. 

 It is supposed lo be poisonous ; and without doul)t 

 many horses have been destroyed l)y il. Horses 



unless it be mingled with chafl:' the horses swallow i eat it very greedily, and are almost sure to eat too 

 the frrain whole. They seem to swallow it more ! much, when permitted. Fermeniaiion, colic, and 



readily than oais. After a week or two the bowels 

 return to their ordinary state. The skin and t!ie 

 coat are almost invariably improved by barley, 

 particularly when boiled and given warm. Like 

 every other kind of corn it issomewliat indigesti- 

 ble, until the stomach becomes accustomed to it. 

 If much be given at first, the horse is likely to take 

 colic. But by gradually increasing tlie quantity 

 fi-om day to day, deducting the oats in proportion, 

 the horse may be safely inured to barley without 

 any other corn. 



White tells us of a Southampton postmaster, 

 who ted his horses entirely on barley and cut 

 straw. They were given together, and the barley 

 was steeped in water twelve hours before it was 

 given. Tvi'o pecks of barley and one bushel of 

 straw formed the daily allowance. It is saiil that, 

 upon this, ''the horses did more work, and were 

 in bettfr condition, than others at the same task 

 upon the ordinary feeding." Thisi« the usual 

 Ktory whenever any new mode or article is recom- 

 mended. But, nevertheless, it Bcems sufficiently 



death are the consequences; but these are easily 

 avoided. The grain seems ilifficult lo masticate 

 and also difficult to digest, and colic may be pro- 

 duced more readily by one lippy of wheat than by 

 two of oats. I have never known it used to the 

 exclusion ofoats, butir is sometimes given in quan- 

 tities not exceeding four pounds per day, and that 

 divided among five fi^eds. Given in this quantity 

 and in this way, it does no harm that any other 

 corn will not do; and it a|)pears perleclly to sup- 

 ply the place of the oais which are withheld lor it. 

 For every /bur pounds of wheat, four pounds, of 

 nearly four and a-haif, may be deducted from the 

 ordinary allowance ofoats. 



Siill, unless the use of good wheat renders the 

 feeding cheaper, I do not see thai it has any good 

 property lo recommend if. If a stone of wheat can 

 be bought for less money than a stone of oats or 

 beans, it may form a part of the corn, using it at 

 first very sparingly, and not exceeding the quanti- 

 ty I mention, four pounds per day. A larger 

 quantity may be tried on two or three horses, but 



