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FOOD AND GENERAL TREATMENT. 413 ' 



for a twelvemonth preceding, and now the disease was assum- 

 ing all the phases of hide-bound. His kidneys and urinary 

 organs were seriously affected ; his sheath had become foul ; 

 his pulse was about fifty, and yet he was very fat. Right 

 here was the trouble, in fact. He had been crowded with 

 corn every day to make him fatter, until, finally, his eyes had 

 fallen victims to the consuming fever of the blood and skin; 

 and we gave as the diagnosis of the case, "Destroyed by 

 corn." Thousands of similar sad instances have there been 

 in the history of American agriculture and stock-raising. 

 But perhaps some will suggest that the horse probably had 

 "naturally weak eyes." This was not the case, by any 

 means ; we never saw a finer formed eye than his. There was 

 no trouble there. The difliculty all proceeded from the in- 

 judicious feeding, which no horse of his age could bear with- 

 out contracting disease of some kind. If we had seen the 

 animal two months earlier, the mischief might have been 

 prevented. 



Many will doubtless be ready to inquire whether they shall 

 not feed corn at all. We answer, " Yes — to your hogs and 

 cattle, which it suits very well, but not to your horse, if you 

 have any thing else to keep him upon ; and if you must use 

 it, the smaller the proportion of his feed which the corn 

 makes the better it will be for him." It may answer very 

 well to feed old horses on corn, at half feed, especially if the 

 precaution be taken to keep a good supply of wood ashes 

 always in the manger. Perhaps the chief difficulty consists 

 in biting the corn from the cob. In the case of young horses, 

 this keeps the teeth and gums sore, and develops the ten- 

 dency to fever, which is especially strong at that age, and 

 hence the greater extent to which ttey suffer than older 

 animals. 



A great many horses do not sufficiently masticate the 

 grain, but swallow much of it barely cracked into pieces, 

 or sometimes not cracked at all. Such food it overtaxes 

 the stomach to digest; it heats and ferments, and then fol- 

 low all the evil consequences of colic. But few young horses 



