662 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



is too much trouble to cut and grind feed I can keep my 

 horses fat on corn and hay." So you can. So can we fatten a 

 steer; but that does not argue highest health or activity or 

 strength. 



While we name ground feed as more economical, we would 

 add that it must always be fed with cut hay or straw, to make 

 it most wholesome and economical. We feed too much bulky, 

 dry feed to our horses in winter. They need to drink great 

 quantities of cold water when fed only dry feed. We can make 

 the feed more palatable, more digestible, by dampening the hay 

 and corn, or cut straw and mill-feed. In feeding oats it is bet- 

 ter to use a sieve to wash them, as it removes dust and gravel, 

 grit, or broken nails or wires, that may be found in the oats. 

 Clover hay, too, becomes a most valuable and economical feed 

 when run through the cutting-box and dampened, and mixed 

 with ground feed. 



Oat-straw costs only about one-fifth or one-tenth as much in 

 the West as good timothy hay. We have found that horses and 

 colts can be kept in prime condition by using oat-straw with 

 grain and ground feed. The peculiar value of hay and straw 

 lies not in the elements of nourishment contained in them being 

 different from those in grain, but in the bulk and dissemination of 

 these elements. The digestion of rich, concentrated feed is not 

 so prompt or complete as that of more bulky feed, and is more 

 liable to ferment and cause indigestion, to be followed by in- 

 flammation. 



The careful, industrious, and observing farmer will not fol- 

 low in the old easy-going ways of hastily feeding just what is 

 handiest. The feed of our animals is our heavy expense, and 

 by its wise and economical use we are to secure our profits and 

 their highest comfort and health. 



The Value of Bulky Food. E. W. Stewart, in his 

 most valuable work on " Feeding Animals," has more success- 

 fully illustrated the value of bulky food, and how to use it, than 

 any other experimenter and writer. English farmers have more 

 carefully studied this question of economy in feeding than have 

 our American farmers, simply because their margins are smaller. 



