No. 7. 



Food of the Horse. 



227 



face, would contain; therefore, the farmer 

 must supply the deficiency of nitrogen by 

 using manures containing ammonia. 



Animal manure is chiefly valuable for the 

 ammonia which it produces. Without it, fod- 

 der for animals, or vegetables and grain tor 

 man, cannot be grown. Manure without stint 

 with nitrogenized substances, and the wheal 

 grown will yield 18 per cent, of gluten, will 

 weigh 64 lbs., and produce 50 bushels to the 

 acre. Such has been the result of an expe- 

 riment I trjed upon a wheat field, when the 

 adjoining field, treated in the usual manner, 

 yielded me wheat weighing 56 pounds, and 

 15 bushels to the acre, and probably noi 

 more than five per cent, of gluten. I placed 

 some of the same nitrogenized composition 

 upon a barren piece of sandy land, which I 

 had never seen covered with verdure of any 

 description, and in a very short period of 

 time, it was clothed with a dense dark green 

 grass, which tillered well. White clover 

 afterwards came in, (which, when it dies, 

 affords food for a succession of plants) and 

 the piece may be considered as reclaimed. — 

 N. Y. Affricullural Transactions. 



Food of the Horse. 



The system of manger-feeding is becom- 

 ing general among farmers. There are few 

 horses that do not habitually waste a portion 

 of their hay ; and by some the greater part is 

 pulled down and trampled under foot, in 

 order first to cull the sweetest and best locks, 

 and which could not be done while the hay 

 was enclosed in a rack. A good feeder will 

 afterwards pick up much of that which was 

 thrown down ; but some of it must be soiled 

 and rendered disgusting, and, in many cases, 

 one-third of this division of the food is wasted 

 Some of the oats and beans are imperfectly 

 chewed by all horses, and scarcely at all by 

 hungry and greedy ones. The appearance 

 of the dung will sufficiently evince this. 



The observation of this induced the adop 

 tion of manger-feeding, or of mixing a por- 

 tion of chaff with the corn and beans. By 

 this means the animal is compelled to chew 

 his food ; he cannot, to any great degree, 

 waste the straw or hay ; the chaff is too hard 

 and too sharp to be swallowed without con- 

 siderable mastication, and, while he is forced 

 to grind that down, the oats and beans are 

 ground with it, and yield more nourishment; 

 the stomach is more slowly filled, and there- 

 fore acts better on its contents, and is not so 

 likely to be overloaded ; and the increased 

 quantity of saliva thrown out in the length- 

 ened maceration of the food, softens it, and 

 makes it more fit for digestion. 



Professor Stewart very properly remarks 



that " many horses swallow their corn in 

 great haste, and when much is eaten, that 

 habit is exceedingly dangerous. The sto- 

 mach is filled — it is overloaded before it has 

 time to make preparation for acting on its 

 contents — the food ferments, and painful or 

 dangerous colic ensues. By adding chaft'to 

 his corn, the horse must take more time to 

 eat it, and time is given for the commence- 

 ment of digestion, before fermentation can 

 occur. In this way chaff is very useful, es- 

 pecially after long fasts." 



If, when considerable provender was 

 wasted, the horse maintained his condition, 

 and was able to do his work, it was evident 

 that much might be saved to the farmer, 

 when he adopted a system by which the 

 horse ate all that was set before him ; and 

 by degrees it was found out that, even food 

 somewhat less nutritious, but a great deal 

 cheaper, and which the horse either would 

 not eat, or would not properly grind down 

 in its natural state, might be added, while 

 the animal would be in quite as good plight, 

 and always ready for work. 



Chaft' may be composed of equal quantities 

 of clover or meadow hay, and wheaten, oaten, 

 or barley straw, cut into pieces of a quarter 

 or half an inch in length, and mingled well 

 together ; the allowance of oats or beans is 

 afterwards added, and mixed with the chaff. 

 Many farmers very properly bruise the oats 

 or beans. The whole oat is apt to slip out 

 ofthechafTand be lost; but when it is bruised, 

 and especially if the chaff is a littled wetted, 

 it will not readily separate; or, should a por- 

 tion of it escape the grinders, it will be 

 partly prepared for digestion by the act of 

 bruising. The prejudice against bruising 

 the oats is, so far as the farmer's horse, and 

 the wagon horse, and every horse of slow 

 draught,are concerned, altogether unfounded. 

 The quantity of straw in the chaft" will al- 

 ways counteract any supposed purgative 

 quality in the bruised oats. Horses of quicker 

 draught, except they are naturally disposed 

 to scour, will thrive better with bruised than 

 with whole oats; for a greater quantity 

 of nutriment will be extracted from the food, 

 and it will always be easy to apportion the 

 quantity of straw or beans to the efiect of 

 the mixture on the bowels of the horse. The 

 principal alteration that should be made in 

 the horse of harder and more rapid work, 

 such as the post-horse, and the stage-coach 

 horse, is to increase the quantity of hay, and 

 diminish that of straw. Two trusses of hay 

 may be cut with one of straw. 



Some gentlemen, in defiance of the preju- 

 dice and opposition of the coachman or the 

 groom, have introduced this mode of feeding 

 mto the stables of their carriage-horses and 



