FOOD AND WATER 257 



Malt is a very good food, but too expensive for general use ; it may bo 

 given with advantage to horses that are convalescent after illness. 



Beans and Pease may be taken together, inasmuch as the nutritive 

 matter contaim^.d in them is very nearly the same. Both are extremely 

 stimulating to the horse, rendering him prone to inflammation when given in 

 inordinate quantities, and always producing more or less flatulence. They 

 each contain more than twice as much gluten as oats, the proportions, 

 according to Professor Johnstone, in 100 parts, being 11 in oats, 26 in 

 beans, and 24 in pease. From this cause beans and pease supply the waste 

 in the muscles produced by hard work, more completely than oats, and the 

 former are therefore extensively used by cab and omnibus proprietors, as 

 well as by farmers, who find them cheaper than oats. I shall hereafter be 

 able to make a comparative estimate of the value of the various articles of 

 horse-food in muscle-making ingredients, from which it will be seen that 

 they are right in their conclusions. For private horses, beans are genei^ally 

 too stimulating, and as they also have a tendency to produce constipation, 

 they should be used with caution. Old horses, and those exposed to the wet, 

 require them, and the effect of a few in restoring condition, when it has 

 been lost during wet and cold weather, is sometimes quite marvellous. 

 Almost all horses are passionately fond of beans, and those which have been 

 long used to them will hardly touch oats alone. In private stables, when 

 beans are given, they ai^e generally mixed with three or four times their 

 weight of oats, half a quartern of beans daily being sufficient, when split, 

 for most horses, when mixed with their usual allowance of oats. Of course 

 this addition must be met by a diminution of the oats ; and thus a horse 

 which has been allowed a peck of oats daily, if he has a quartern of beans 

 may be reduced to three quarterns of oats in addition. Wherever the feet 

 or legs are inclined to inflame, or there is any tendency to thick wind or 

 broken wind, beans are very injurious, and should be carefully avoided. 

 Indeed, for private work, I should never recommend them, excepting for old 

 horses, or for those which are much exposed to the weather, and especially 

 in standing about at night. In such cases beans are extremely valuable, 

 always supposing that there is none of the diseases which I have instanced 

 as aggravated by them. Many washy, light-carcassed horses, which could 

 not be made to do any work without beans, may by their aid be rendered 

 serviceable ; and although they are liable to great abuse, they are a very 

 valuable adjunct to the stableman. Beans should never be used till they 

 are nearly a year old, and after they are thrashed they require turning 

 every ten days to keep them from becoming musty. They are very prone 

 to the ravages of the bean-bug ; but so long as they are sweet and old the 

 damage done by this larva is only from the loss of substance, wdiich they 

 cause by scooping out the middle of the bean. Pease produce nearly the 

 same effects as beans on the horse, but they ai'e not so heating, and scarcely 

 so digestible. Beans and pease weigh from 60 to 65 lbs. per bushel; the 

 price varying from 32s. to 35s. for eight bushels. 



Maize, formerly known as Indian corn, is now imported at such a low 

 price as to tempt many horse-owners to use it. The great omnibus and 

 tramway companies, railway contractors and others, were not slow to avail 

 themselves of so strong a food, but a long experience has proved that horses 

 consuming any considerable quantity of it are more liable to inflammatory 



