THE HORSE HYGIENE AND SANITARY CONDITIONS. 661 



often leave enough mash in the tub or manger to ferment, we 

 have found that dry bran, mixed with the oats and corn, gives 

 excellent results and protects against dangers that come from 

 feeding stale or musty mash. The horse, of all animals, needs 

 pure, sweet, sound feed, and can not long " stomach " filthy treat- 

 ment of his supplies. Some men with stomachs like an ostrich 

 or a pig, have no sympathy with an animal that can not eat 

 heartily of anything given him. Poor hay or damaged grain 

 should never be given to horses ; musty, dusty hay endangers the 

 wind, while damaged grain induces inflammation of the bowels. 



The work horse can not keep up strength and flesh on insuf- 

 ficient or poor feed any more than the engineer can keep up a 

 requisite head of steam on improper or insufficient fuel, nor 

 the horse or engine do its work if the supply of fuel or feed be 

 not given regularly and as needed. Neither too much nor too 

 little is the golden mean which gives health and vigor. 



Economy in Feeding. The waste about the stables of 

 the farmer is astonishing to the careful livery man, who has to 

 buy his feed, and whose business demands that his horses shall 

 daily be in condition for work and for resisting disease. Farmers 

 as a general thing feed too much, are not sufficiently careful as 

 to the quality, and do not regulate the amount of feed to the 

 demands of the system, which is influenced by labor and rest, 

 as well as by change of season or temperature. In the winter 

 we can keep our horses and colts more cheaply by the use of a 

 little grain with a moderate allowance of hay than on hay 

 alone. 



A study of the feeding values of hay and clean straw, of 

 corn, oats, bran, and oil-cake meal, will show, as have our own 

 experience, that by cutting straw, or clover hay, or timothy, and 

 adding enough of bran, oil-meal, and corn-meal to make the ra- 

 tion complete, we can keep our horses and cattle far more cheaply 

 and in better condition than when we have trusted to the stan- 

 dard feed of the West corn and hay, or even oats and hay or 

 fodder. Laziness and want of knowledge of the facts are 

 against economy and the best sanitary and hygienic treatment 

 of animals on the farm. We are met with the answer, "0, it 



