FOOD. 145 



In summer, half the quantity with green feed will be sufificient. 

 Those which work on the farm have from ten to fourteen 

 pounds, and the hunter from twelve to sixteen. There are no 

 efficient and safe substitutes for good oats; but, on the contrary, 

 it may be safely asserted, that they possess an invigorating pro- 

 perty which is found in no other kind of food. 



Oatmeal forms a poultice more stimulating than one com- 

 posed of linseed-meal alone — or they may be mingled in different 

 proportions, as circumstances require. In the form of gruel, 

 it constitutes one of the most important articles of diet for the 

 sick horse ; not, indeed, to be forced upon him, but a pail con* 

 taining it being slung in his box, of which he will soon begin 

 to drink when water is denied. Gruel is generally either not 

 boiled long enough, or a sufficient quantity of oatmeal is not 

 used for it. The proportions should be, a pound of meal thrown 

 into a gallon of water, and kept constantly stirred until it boils, 

 and five minutes afterwards. 



White-water, made by stirring a pint of oatmeal in a pail of 

 water, the chill being taken from it, is an excellent beverage 

 for the thirsty and tired horse. 



Barley is a common food of the horse in various parts of the 

 continent, and, until the introduction of oats, seems to have 

 constituted almost his only food. It is more nutritious than 

 oats, containing nine hundred and twenty parts of nutritive 

 matter in every thousand. There seems, however to be some- 

 thing necessary besides a great proportion of nutritive matter, 

 in order to render any substance wholesome, strengthening, or 

 fattening ; therefore it is, that with many horses that are hardly 

 worked, and, indeed, with horses generally, barley does not 

 agree so well as oats. They are occasionally subject to inflam- 

 matory complaints, and particularly to surfeit and mange. 

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