FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



months in the year, and a breakfast of ten to 

 fifteen ears of a cold morning is as grateful as 

 you find a Yarmouth bloater now and then. 

 There is a strong prejudice against corn, but 

 it is a mistaken objection, provided ear-corn, 

 rather than the shelled or the cracked, be gener- 

 ally fed. Bran in its various grades, according to 

 the animal's characteristics, is a most useful and 

 generally cheap food, and mixed with cheap oats 

 and cooked (by pouring on boiling water, and 

 covering for a few hours) may well be used 

 for feeding as a warm evening meal, well salted, 

 on, say, Saturday nights. All the other grains 

 may be usefully and profitably fed in the same 

 way as well as brewers' grains, stale bread, etc., 

 experiment determining the needs of the indi- 

 vidual. Cut feed is an excellent provender in 

 theory, and in practice if carefully managed, but 

 its steady use has caused many a death, and made 

 many a hopeless dyspeptic. The difficulty is to 

 keep the stomach sweet, especially with greedy 

 feeders, who will bolt their provender. To use it 

 safely a mixture of equal parts of powdered ginger, 

 gentian, and bi-carbonate of soda should be kept, 

 and a tablespoonful mixed with at least one feed 

 daily. Flaxseed jelly, made by pouring boiling 



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