146 A YEAR IN AGRICULTURE 



number of serious digestive disorders among horses often 

 result from feeding corn in mouldy condition. A rather 

 recent trouble among horses is forage poisoning, originat- 

 ing from mouldy or other fungous growths eaten by the 

 horse. 



Rations for horses. Corn and timothy hay alone are not 

 good feeding rations for working horses. In this feed there 

 is not enough protein food to keep the horse in the best con- 

 dition. Oats and corn, with mixed clover and timothy hay 

 for roughage, make a fairly good ration for the horse. Alfalfa 

 hay, if well cured, is good and a great favorite with horses; 

 with corn and oats it makes a good ration for the working 

 horse. Corn may be fed in the ear, shelled, cracked, or 

 chopped. The chopped corn is too fine, however, to be well 

 digested. Ear corn and oats, half and half, make a good food 

 commonly used on the farm. Patent stock foods are not to 

 be used under any circumstances. Horses should be fed 

 three times a day, as follows: The grain ration divided 

 into three equal parts and fed morning, noon, and night. 

 One-half the hay should be fed at night and one-fourth at 

 morning and at noon. In general about one pound of con- 

 centrate (grain) and one pound of roughage (hay) should 

 be fed per one hundred pounds live weight of animal. A 

 horse doing heavy work should receive from one and one- 

 fourth to one and one-half pounds of concentrate and one 

 pound of roughage per one hundred pounds live weight. 



A fifteen-hundred-pound horse at heavy work should receive, 

 if fed corn, oats in ratio of two to one, and alfalfa hay 

 fourteen pounds of corn (twenty ears) and six pounds of 



