FOOD. 139 



that time. Upon eight pounds of hay daily, with a due allow- 

 ance of oats, a horse can be kept in full work, in prime health 

 and spirits. It is better to keep young horses at grass until 

 about five years old, and to work them during that period. 

 When kept in the stable and not worked they are apt to ac- 

 quire many very bad habits ; and if the rack and manger be 

 kept empty, with a view of preventing the over-loading of their 

 stomachs, they will fall into a habit of playing with and mouth- 

 ing them — a habit which finally degenerates into wind-sucking 

 or crib-biting. 



The system of manger-feeding is now becoming general 

 among farmers. There are few horses that do not habitually 

 waste a portion of their hay ; and by some the greater part is 

 pulled down and trampled under foot, in order first to cull the 

 sweetest and best locks, which could not be done while the 

 hay was confined in the rack. A good feeder will afterward 

 pick up much of that which was thrown down : but some of it 

 must be soiled and rendered disgusting, and, in many cases, 

 one-third of this division of their food is wasted. Some of the 

 oats and beans are imperfectly chewed by all horses, and 

 scarcely at all by hungry and greedy ones. The appearance 

 of the dung will sufficiently establish this. 



The observation of this induced the adoption of manger- 

 feeding, or of mixing a portion of cut feed with the grain and 

 beans. By this means the animal is compelled to chew his 

 food ; he cannot, to any great degree, waste the straw or hay; 

 the cut feed is too hard and too sharp to be swallowed without 

 sufficient mastication, and while he is forced to grind that down, 

 the oats and the beans are also ground with it, and thus yield 

 more nourishment ; the stomach is more slowly filled, and there- 



