GRAIN AND VEGETABLES 43 



horses doing little work, and for brood mares and colts, 

 is a mixture of dry bran and oats or dry bran and corn, 

 preferably the oats and bran once or twice a day — if the 

 horse is fed three times — and the corn and bran once 

 a day at night. A mixture of oats, corn and bran 

 ground up together will do as well. Horses thus fed 

 will also, as a rule, require a bran mash once a week 

 in place of the night feed of oats and bran, or corn 

 and bran. 



Bran, or some other laxative food. Is absolutely 

 necessary to prevent constipation in horses changed 

 abruptly from pasture to stable, and from grass to 

 hay. 



Bran is especially good for pregnant mares and also 

 for colts, because it is a good bone producer. Bran 

 is much better than what is known as middlings — bran, 

 which is the outer coat of a kernel of wheat, having a 

 more laxative effect. It should have a sweet smell, 

 should be In large flakes, of a pale flesh tint, and should 

 make the palm of the hand floury, when it is rubbed 

 with the bran. 



There are, of course, things that will take the place 

 of bran as a laxative, such as potatoes, and the farmer 

 who has a good store of small potatoes can perhaps 

 economize by feeding the potatoes to his horses instead 

 of bran. 



It might be mentioned here that whereas uncooked 

 potatoes have a slightly laxative effect on the bowels, 

 boiled potatoes, thoroughly cooked, have the opposite 

 effect, and a chronic case of looseness of the bowels can 

 usually be cured by feeding boiled potatoes. 



