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for nothing. The com should be given as nearly 

 as possible at regular intervals, and never more 

 than a quartern at a time. Horses will often eat 

 up a double feed with apparent appetite, but they 

 rarely digest it: the oats should be old, clean, and 

 above all, free from any musty smell. It is not 

 easy to an unpractised eye to judge of their quality 

 by a single sample ; but by comparison of different 

 samples in the chandler's shop, the appearance of 

 good oats soon becomes familiar. 



It will save considerable waste to have the oats 

 bruised in a mill : the cost of one is only five or 

 six pounds ; the trouble of it nothing. I was 

 never aware of the quantity of dirt and impurities 

 to be found even in clean oats^ till a friend recently 

 showed me the siftings of his bruising mill ; such 

 rubbish in the stomach of a horse cannot but be 

 most injurious ; the principal object, however, in 

 bruising the corn, is to assist the mastication, and 

 of course the digestion. The oats frequently pass 

 through the stomach and bowels, without being 

 broken, especially in horses that are fast feeders ; 

 I think it is no exaggeration to say, that three 

 feeds of bruised oats will convey as much nutri- 

 ment to the animal, as four that are not bruised. 

 In the country and in large posting establishments, 

 where the labour of the mill would be inconvenient, 



