TTJRNIKa-OUT.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[turning- OUT, 



i.ever allow ourselves to be discouraged ; 

 creatures accustomed to a particular diet, will 

 sometimes refuse a superior one for that to 

 which they are habituated. It should be fre- 

 quently presented to them, and before long 

 they will relish it. Why should not leaves, 

 chaff, straw, heath, fern, &c., reduced to powder, 

 be mixed with this bread ? Beetroot, or 

 potatoes a'jd flour, will serve as a vehicle for 

 all these substances ; whilst experience soon 

 proves the quantities for producing the neces- 

 sary proportions to form the required material 

 of a substantial consistence. 



In closing this portion of our work, it may 

 be desirable to many to be made acquainted 

 with the nourishing properties known, by 

 chemical analysis, to exist in several of the 

 most necessary vegetables. 



1,000 parts of wheat contain 955 parts of 

 putritive matter ; barley, 920 ; oats, 743 ; peas, 

 574 ; beans, 570 ; potatoes, 230 ; red beet, 

 148 ; parsnips, 99 ; carrots, 98. 



Of the grasses, 1,000 parts of the meadow 

 cat's-tail, contain at the time of seeding, 98 

 parts of nutritive matter ; narrow-leaved mea- 

 dow grass in seed, and sweet-scented soft 

 grass in flower, 95 ; narrow-leaved and flat- 

 stalked meadow grass in flower, fertile mea- 

 dow grass in seed, and tall fescue, in flower, 

 93 ; sweet-scented soft grass, in flower, and the 

 aftermath, 77 ; florin cutin, 76 ; tall fescue, 

 in the aftermath, and meadow soft grass, in 

 flower, 74 ; cabbage, 73 ; crested dog's-tail, 

 and brone, when flowering, 71 ; yellow oat, 

 in flower, 66 ; Swedish turnips, 64 ; common 

 turnips, 42 ; sainfoin, and broad-leaved and 

 long-rooted clover, 39 ; white clover, 32 ; and 

 lucern, 23. 



TURNING OUT TO GRASS, OR THE STRAW- 

 YARD. 



When horses have been hard worked, turn- 

 ing out becomes a natural consequence, to 

 refresh their limbs : they are occasionally 

 turned out wlien not wanted for present use. 

 The hunter, when the season is over, is turned 

 into good grass, which cools the system, and pre- 

 vents too great an incumbrance on the master's 

 pocket. It also refreshes his limbs, which, if 

 he has been regularly hunted throughout the 

 season, stand in need of it. If, however, he 

 has only occasionally been so, and is now 

 13G 



wanted for the road, there is no necessity for 

 turning him out. AVe have heard of horses 

 having been kept in a stable twelve years 

 without eating any green food, yet have con- 

 tinued in health and condition : while there are 

 some constitutions that will not look well in the 

 stable for almost any continuance of time, but 

 soon sufler from indi";estion, and hide-bound 

 when their coats assume a chill and russet 

 hue. Grass, however, is by no means impro- 

 per for horses. On the contrary, it is good-, 

 and such as are kept for pleasure, and only 

 moderately used, may be put to grass, and 

 yet, with a little corn, worked occasionally all 

 the summer. 



Turning-out in winter to a straw-yard, is a 

 practice with those who maintain a liorse foi 

 pleasure in summer, and have no occasion for 

 him in winter. Those who cannot aff'ord the , 

 expense of keeping a horse in the stable in 

 winter, endeavour to persuade themselves that 

 it is beneficial to the animal to be put into the 

 straw-yard, and famished with cold and hunger 

 for five or six months. Consequently, this 

 practice is not to be recommended. Far better 

 to sell the animal if the expense of stabling 

 him cannot be afforded. 



When gentlemen have convenience of their 

 own to turn horses out in winter, there is no 

 doubt of their being taken care of. In open 

 weather there is good pasturage ; and in hard 

 weather, an out-house or stable to lie in, with 

 plenty of hay. But as we are here speaking 

 of straw-yards, where all that come are taken 

 in, the practice of sending them to such re- 

 positories is a dangerous, if not a bad one. Not 

 but that some animals may seem well enough 

 when they are deeply bedded with clean and 

 wholesome straw, of which they can cull the 

 ears to fill themselves ; but where they are 

 taken in for pay, some men scarcely ever think 

 their yards are overstocked, and provender, 

 which is scarcely fit for the horses to lie upon, 

 becomes their food. 



Giving green food in the stable is called 

 soiling. It is not often convenient for those 

 who keep no more horses than they have use 

 for, to turn them out to grass, more particu- 

 larly in a season when people take pleasure on 

 horseback, or travel on business. The work of 

 animals of this description is hardly to be called, 

 exercise; which frequently consists of an 



