FEEDING. 243 



There never was a greater mistake made. In my next 

 chapter, which will be entirely devoted to the subject of 

 stabling, I shall endeavour to show that the only apparatus 

 necessary is an exceedingly simple one, — certainly not by 

 any means of either a costly or extravagant nature. 



To feed a horse four times a day, on any kind of food, 

 is in my opinion unnecessary; unless, indeed, he be an 

 extremely delicate feeder, in which case " little and often " 

 should be the rule ; but I maintain that if fed but thrice 

 he ought to be given as good a proportion as is ordinarily 

 divided into four. I like to see a hard-working horse 

 able to eat his five quarterns of mixed oats and beans, 

 varied with a good mash once or twice a week, and always on 

 a Saturday night. At the same time I am entirely against 

 placing an excess of food in the manger at one time ; it 

 is much better to give an animal just what he will finish, 

 than that he should not leave his manger perfectly clean. 



Corn ought to be boiled until every grain is swollen to 

 nearly double its normal size, and is capable of being bruised 

 between the fingers ; it should then be turned out on big trays 

 and left to cool. To suffer it to grow quite cold is not only 

 unnecessary, but is scarcely even advisable ; tepid food is 

 much easier of digestion, both in the human stomach and in 

 that of the horse, than food that has become chilled. Cold 

 substances when swallowed, must rise to a temperature 

 of nearly 100^ before the process of digestion can go 

 healthily forward, and that the food should be a step or 

 two on the road to this degree of warmth will materially 

 assist the sanitary laws of animal nature. There is not, at 



R 2 



