PEAS.] 



THE HORSE, AND 



[the tuenip. 



the grinders of the animal. Some postmasters 

 use cbafF with beans instead of oats. "With 

 liardly-worked horses they may possibly be 

 allowed; but in general cases, beans, without 

 oats, would be too binding and stimulating, 

 and would produce costiveness, and probably 

 megrims or staggers. Neither the hard-worked 

 coach-horse, nor the washy one, nor the old one, 

 could perform their tasks without them. To 

 turf horses they are sometimes given as a 

 stimulant. The straw of the bean is highly 

 nutritive, and is usually given to horses. 



PEAS. 



Peas are occasionally given, and appear to 

 be, in a slight degree, more nourishing than 

 beans, and not so heating. They contain five 

 hundred and seventy-four parts of nutritive 

 matter. Eor horses of slow work they may be 

 used; but the quantity of chaff should be 

 increased, and a few oats added. They have 

 not been found to answer with animals of 

 quick draught. It is essential that they should 

 be crushed ; otherwise, on account of their 

 globular form, they are apt to escape from the 

 teeth, and many are swallowed whole. Ex- 

 posed to warmth and moisture in the stomach, 

 they swell very much, and may painfully and 

 injuriously distend it. Many horses have 

 died from gorging themselves with peas ; and, 

 on opening them, their stomachs have been 

 found to have burst by the swelling of the 

 vegetable. In proof of the swelling property 

 of them, let a small phial be filled with them, 

 tightly corked, and warm water poured upon 

 it ; the peas will burst it in a few hours. 



In some northern countries, the meal of the 

 pea is not only given as food to the horses, 

 but, in cases of diabates, is used as a remedy. 



TARES 

 Of the value of tares, as forming a portion 

 of the late spring and summer food of the 

 stabled and agricultural horse, there can be no 

 doubt. They are very nutritive, and act as a 

 gentle opening medicine. "When surfeit-lumps 

 appear on the skin, the horse begins to rub 

 himself against the divisions of the stall, and 

 the legs swell, and the heels threaten to crack : 

 a few tares cut up with the chaiT, or given 

 instead of a portion of the hay, will often 

 aflbrd. sometimes immediate, and generally rapid 

 134 



relief. Ten or twelve pounds may be supplied 

 daily, and half of that weight of hay sub- 

 tracted. It is an erroneous notion, that, 

 given in moderate quantities, they either 

 roughen the coat or lessen the capability for 

 hard work. Tares furnish a greater propor- 

 tion of food for a limited time than almost any 

 other kind of forage croo. 



RYE GRASS. 



Hje grass supplies a valuable article of food, 

 but is inferior to the tare. It is not so nutri- 

 tive; is apt to scour; and occasionally, late 

 in the spring, it has appeared to become in- 

 jurious to the horse. 



CLOVER. 



Clover, for soiling the horse, is inferior to 

 the tare and the rye grass, but nevertheless 

 is useful when these cannot be obtained. 

 Clover hay is, perhaps, preferable to meadow 

 hay for chaif. It will sometimes tempt the 

 sick animal, and may be given with advantage 

 to horses of slow and heavy draught; but 

 custom seems properly to have forbidden it to 

 the hunter and the hackney. 



LUCERN. 



Lucern, where it can be obtained, is to be 

 preferred even to tares, and sainfoin is superior 

 to lucern. Although they contain but a small 

 quantity of nutritive matter, it is easily di- 

 gested, and perfectly assimilated. They speedily 

 put both muscle and fat on the horse that is 

 worn down by labour, and they are almost a 

 specific for hide-bound. Some farmers have 

 thought so highly of lucern as to substitute it 

 for oats. This may do for the agricultural 

 horse of slow and not heavy work ; but the 

 animal from which speedier action is sometimes 

 required, as well as the one of* all work, must 

 have a proportion of hard meat within him. 



THE SWEDISH TURNIP. 

 This root is an article of food the value of 

 which has not been sufficiently appreciated, 

 and particularly for agricultural horses. It 

 does not contain much nutrition, but is easy 

 of digestion, quickly fattens the animal, and 

 produces a glossy skin. It may be given once 

 a dav — at night after the work is done, when 

 it will be extremely grateful. 



