242 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



well-boiled potatoes, would be less capable of doing a good 

 day's work than if compelled to eat the same materials 

 raw. Animals possessed of even the very best digestions 

 lose a great portion of the nutriment of their food when 

 given in the ordinary way — a large quantity of the oats 

 passing through their bodies quite as whole and unbroken 

 as when swallowed ; whereas every grain of the cooked 

 food is assimilated with the blood, and goes to nourish the 

 system, — consequently, nothing is lost 



A chief reason for the prejudice against cooked food is 

 that it gives trouble, and is a " bother " to prepare. This 

 is always the groom's excuse ; everything is a trouble to 

 him, except thrusting a measure of hard dry corn, accom- 

 panied by a bucket of water, at stated intervals before his 

 charge, and receiving his wages — at stated intervals also — 

 for so doing. Were he to understand, when being hired, 

 that to cook the food would form as much a portion of his 

 business as to groom and bed the horses, there would 

 probably be very little grumbling — especially when every 

 convenient appliance would be found ready to his hand ; 

 but the difficulty always lies with the old and knowing 

 ones — men who have been accustomed all their lives to do 

 things their own way, and have things just as they pleased. 

 These, as a rule, resent every innovation, and are only to 

 be dealt with by persons as knowing and determined 

 as themselves. , 



Another source of objection is the idea that it will 

 require some special apparatus — some costly, difficult, com- 

 plicated contrivance for carrying out the proposed plan. 



