126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Secretary Sessions. That is supposing it is cut and cured 

 properly? 



Mr. Russell. Well, you have got to have good luck in 

 cutting it. If it does not turn out well I can feed it to 

 sheep, for sheep will eat any hay that is damaged or not up 

 to standard better than any other stock. The horse is not 

 delicate about his fodder. He will eat oat straw with good 

 effect, and wheat straw and very coarse hay. I do not think 

 it is essential in feeding horses to have absolutely the best. 

 The fact is, as we feed horses, Governor, as I have stated 

 here to-night, we generally give them about twice as much 

 as they ought to have anyhow, and they are largely wearing 

 out their energies in feeding. I think there are very few 

 men who make proper tests, for that reason, because they 

 get horses into the habit of using a great deal more food 

 than they can assimilate. The way to try a horse is to re- 

 duce his ration to the point where all of it is used in 

 the natural economy. Then you can form a great deal 

 better judgment, for we only feed horses for strength and 

 to keep them in good form. It is an entirely difterent prob- 

 lem from that which is presented to the dairyman or the 

 maker of beef. We do not want to increase the weight of 

 the horse. We only want to keep him in good strength. 



A horse sixteen hands high corresponds to a fine, well- 

 grown, six-foot man. It is about the maximum of useful 

 height. Neither the man nor the horse should be fat. If a 

 liorse measures sixteen hands, with proper-shaped withers, 

 his weight is almost always too great for his size, and it 

 comes from this constant practice of overfeeding, which wears 

 him out in middle age, just as his master is worn out in the 

 same way. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. I want to confirm that idea. For 

 two or three summers I have spent some time more or less 

 upon cattle ranches, and I have been perfectly amazed at 

 noticing the tremendous work that the cowboy's horse will 

 do. A cowboy will start out, for instance, this morning at 

 six o'clock, and he will keep that horse under the saddle 

 until noon, and give him a short bite, may be three or four 

 quarts of oats, or turn him out to grass, and in nine times 

 out of ten he will work that horse all day, doing more work 



