OF LIVE STOCK. 147 



the same management to other farm operations, it is found, 

 that a. considerable saving of labour might be effected. 



The grinding of oats or beans for horses, more especially 

 when they get aged, and begin to lose their teeth, or have 

 a custom of swallowing grain without chewing it, deserves 

 to be recommended as a most excellent practice. The horses 

 thus receive the whole nourishment; whereas, when given, 

 whole, many devour their corn entire, and it is seen to pass 

 through them as they swallow it. Corn given bruised, it is 

 said, will go about one-fourth farther than when given whole. 

 Cutting hay, or straw, into chaffj may also be adopted with; 

 advantage, in the feeding of horses. 



It is more the practice in Scotland than in England, for 

 the farmers to give straw to their horses, though it is said 

 that wheat straw is better fodder in England than in Scot- 

 land ; the English cutting it knee high, and only giving the 

 slender succulent part of the stalk to the cattle.* A large 

 proportion of the farm-horses in East-Lothian, and other 

 districts, are maintained on peas and bean straw, during 

 the winter months; but as that species of food loses its 

 juices in the spring, hay must then be given. In regard to 

 straw, the following observations have been transmitted to 

 me by a correspondent residing near Edinburgh. He 

 makes it a rule to sell all his straw, excepting what is ate 

 by his own horses, and to buy dung. He gets for oat straw, 

 from 10s. to 15s. a kemple, and for wheat from 8s. to 10s. 

 per kemple, or from 5d. to Gd. per stone. A kemple weighs 

 about 18 or 19 stone, although the regulations in Edinburgh 

 market require that it should be only 16 stone. He never 



* It is also said, that the farmers in England cut their wheat somewhat 

 greener than those in Scotland, which preserves more of the naturajt 

 juices, and of course makes the fodder better. 



