THE HORSE-HYGIENE AND SANITARY CONDITIONS. 659 



be at rest and contented. The digestion is influenced so 

 quickly by nervous conditions, that if we would feed so as to 

 secure best results therefrom, we must arrange hours of work 

 and methods of feeding, so the animals can contentedly and 

 quietly take their rations at regular times. 



The rushing, tearing farmer has not time to allow his team 

 to rest before eating. The animal comes to the water-trough 

 heated, and weary, and excited, and mechanically and greedily 

 fills itself with water,' and in the same way bolts its feed, in an 

 excited, exhausted condition. Animals so fed and watered are 

 never in good condition. We have seen this class of farmers 

 feeding ten to fifteen ears of corn at a feed, and stuffing the 

 mangers three times a day with hay and fodder, and complain- 

 ing that their horses never get fat, and never look right. The 

 neighbor's team, on the other hand, is plump, hair lively, and 

 the horses always ready for work and need no urging with whip 

 or yells to get them to do their work. How to feed, is as im- 

 portant as what to feed. 



How to Feed. The burden of writers is usually on the 

 analysis of feed ; how much it takes to keep up heat and 

 repairs of fiber and give a surplus of strength or force. All of 

 which are most important. Yet with all this, unless the farmer 

 loves his team and can in his work and grooming and general 

 handling of them be thoughtful of their comfort, he will not 

 have them come to the stable in condition to feed. 



When our teams are weary from long-continued work, they 

 should be allowed time to rest before feed is given. This is 

 necessary to secure proper digestion. It is not the amount 

 eaten, but the amount digested and assimilated, that repairs waste 

 of tissue and gives strength. 



If the feed and drink are not given regularly, and when the 

 animal is in condition to masticate and digest the food, the 

 drink and feed, so far from being a benefit, may prove an injury. 

 Here we are met with the cause of indigestion, followed by 

 colic, and then by inflammation of the bowels, two ills which 

 destroy more farm horses than all others combined. Along with 

 these come founder. 



