666 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



of one pound of hay to two pounds of meal, a ratio adopted 

 rather for mechanical than physiological reasons, as this is all 

 the meal that will adhere to the hay. The New York Consol- 

 idated Stage Company uses a very small quantity of salt. They 

 think much salt causes horses to urinate too freely. They find 

 the horses do not eat so much when worked too hard. The 

 large horses eat more than the small ones, and are sooner used 

 up by wear, their feet and shoulders giving out. Horses do not 

 keep as fat on oats alone, if at hard labor, as on corn-meal, or a 

 mixture of corn-meal and oats. A mixture of half oats and half 

 corn is preferred when oats are not too expensive. The hay is 

 all cut, mixed with meal, and fed moist. Yellow Jersey corn is 

 considered best. 



In cold weather the horses are watered four times a day in 

 the stables, and not at all on the road. In warm weather, four 

 times a day in the stables, and are allowed a sip on the road at 

 middle of the route. The horses are not allowed to drink when 

 warm, as it founders them. 



In warm weather a bed of sawdust is prepared for horses 

 to roll in. They eat more in cold weather than in warm. The 

 difference, however, is not exactly known. In the worst of 

 traveling the three hundred and thirty-five horses of this com- 

 pany eat forty-five thousand pounds of meal a week. In good 

 weather they eat forty thousands pounds of meal, or one- 

 ninth less. 



Of seven stage lines, using one thousand one hundred and 

 eleven horses, we find the average of travel per day was sixteen 

 and a half miles. On an average the horses- were fed daily 

 twenty and six-seventh pounds of cut hay and thirteen and a 

 half pounds of corn-meal and two ounces of salt per day. 



From this report, which we have greatly condensed, it appears : 

 1. That horses, even at hard work, can be kept in good condition 

 on cut hay and corn-meal. Stewart has thoroughly proven by 

 his own experience, that when he used cut clover, hay, and corn- 

 meal the horses kept in better condition than when timothy hay 

 was used. 2. A mixture of oats benefited the horses, but in- 

 creased the expense of keep. Corn-meal keeps horses fat better 



