THE HORSE. 83 



to prevent him from swallowing it too hurriedly. In 

 this way it may so far supply the place of cut fodder. 

 But the barn chaff is usually mingled with the boiled 

 food, and if the article be very soft, the chaff may 

 give them consistence, but it does little more. The 

 coving chaff of beans is said to form a very good 

 manger food. 



ROOTS. 



Potatoes, carrots and turnips are the roots chief- 

 ly used for feeding horses. Parsnips, sugar beet, 

 mangel-wurzel and yams, are occasionally employed. 



POTATOES 



Are given both raw and boiled ; in either state 

 they are much relished by all horses as a change 

 from other food. They are rather laxative than 

 otherwise, and especially when given uncooked. 

 Given raw and in considerable quantity to a horse 

 not accustomed to them, they are almost sure 

 to produce indigestion and colic ; when boiled or 

 steamed they are less apt to ferment in the stomach. 

 For horses that do slow, and perhaps not very hard 

 or lon^ continued work, potatoes may, in a great 

 measure, or entirely, supersede grain. They are 

 little used for fast-work horses, yet they may be 

 given, and sometimes they are given, without any 

 harm. On many farms they form, along with straw 

 fodder, the whole of the horse's winter food. In 

 Essex, farm-horses have been kept throughout the 

 winter entirely upon steamed potatoes. Each horse 

 got fifty pounds per day, and did the ordinary work 

 of the farm with the greatest ease. Some salt was 

 mixed with them, and occasionally a little sulphur, 

 which is quite superfluous. 



According to Professor Low, fifteen pounds of 

 raw potatoes yield as much nutriment as four and a 



