DOMEbTlC AmMALS. 68'. 



farmers should remember tliat it is much cheaper to put horses in conditioi? 

 when work is very light, and that all the extra flesh put on in winter represents 

 so much extra labor available in spring. Besides, it should always be the aim 

 of team-owners to keep their horses in good working condition, for it takes less 

 food to keep up condition than to recover it when lost." 



II. To avoid colics and aid in digestion he says: " Let us examine a few 

 rations for work-horses in winter. Horses are often subject to coUc from 

 improper feeding. When fed upon cornmeal alone, its large percentage of 

 starch renders it too heating, and, besides, it is a very concentrated food, and 

 being just moistened with saliva so as to be swallowed, it goes into the stomach 

 in the compact form of dough, and the gastric juice cannot circulate through 

 it so as properly to perform its office, and internal heat, fever and colic often 

 occur from want of proper digestion. All such concentrated food should be 

 mixed with cut hay, the hay bemg just moistened so that tlie meal will adhere 

 to it. This mixes the concentrated with the bulky food, and the hay separates 

 the particles of meal so as to render the mixture porous and the gastric juice 

 now circulates freely through the mass and operates upon the whole contents of 

 the stomach at once, The best way to use cornmeal as a single grain food is to 

 mix it with moistened (cut) clover hay. If the clover is of good quality it con- 

 tains a larger percentage of albuminoids (muscle-forming food) tlian cornmeal, 

 and thus helps to balance the constituents." 



[Possibly it may not be amiss to call attention here to the subject of scald- 

 ing meal by pourmg on boiling water, as mentioned under the head of "Meal 

 and Hay for Fattening Stock." If scalding it for fattening purposes makes it 

 more digestible, why not in general feeding? Still, as it Is to be mixed with cut 

 hay here it is not so absolutely necessary. — Author.] 



III. On the Best Feed or Rations for Work-Rorsag he tays: "But one of 

 the best rations for work-horses is corn,' oats and flaxseed, ground together — tlie 

 corn and oats in equal weight, and to 19 bushels of the mixture of corn and 

 oats add 1 bushel of flaxseed, and grind flue, all togetner. The corn and oats 

 make a well-balanced ration, and the flaxseed is rich in oil, muscle-forming and 

 bone-building elements; but its oil is its greatest sanitary element. This small 

 proportion of oil is just suflicient to keep the bowels in excellent condition, the 

 coat sleek, and every part of the system in well-balanced activity. And then 

 by feeding this ground mixture with twice its bulk of moistened cut hay you 

 have as perfect a ration for work-horses as can be compounded. All regular 

 grist-mills now have an apparatus for mixing different grains together, so that 

 the farmer has only to carry the oats, corn or flaxseed in proper quantity to mill 

 and they will all be mixed without hand labor. If the farmer has no straw- 

 cutter he may use oats or wheat chaff to mix with the meal to render it porous." 



[The author would hardly risk the mixture of so small a proportion of 

 flaxseed with the other. I should prefer it to be ground alone and put in the 

 proper amount with each feed ; but possibly the machinery Mr. Stewart refers 

 to may do it better than I should expect.] 



IV. For WinteHng Horses Doing but Little Wbrk—A7nount and Kinds of 

 Feed Necessai-y.— Upon this subject he closes by saying: " In wintering horses 

 that are doing but little work, straw may be fed with the last ration and the 

 horses will do well. From 8 to 10 lbs. of this meal to each horse daily will 

 bring them through finely, even on good straw. When oats are too expensive 

 cornmeal and wheat bran mixed in equal weights, with 1 pt. of oatmeal to each 

 horse, will give a good result. If hay is scarce, 2 lbs. of decorticated (hulled) 

 cotton-seed meal, 4 lbs. of cornmeal, 4 lbs. of bran and cut straw will winter 

 horses well. But there should always be a variety in the food. If the farmer 

 has clover hay and straw, these should be mixed tosj^ctlior— better if both be cut 

 before mixing, but they may be mixed in the manger without cutting." 



