336 



The Hm'se. 



Vol. XTI. 



The Horse. 



BY R. L. PELL. 



In changing the food of my horses from 

 green to dry, and vice versa, I am particu- 

 larly careful in seeing that it is done by de- 

 grees, as on one or two occasions I have no- 

 ticed that an immediate change has produced 

 hoven in cattle, though I have not observed 

 any ill effects in horses. Still, I think it best 

 to break oft" gradually. If, for instance, you 

 are feeding corn, add green food a short time 

 before you intend to make the change, and 

 increase it constantly while you diminish 

 the corn. Horses, when soiled, should be 

 fed in small quantities, and often. An im- 

 mense advantage gained in soiling horses is, 

 that you have them always at hand when 

 required for labour, and not having enjoyed 

 leisure in the fields, they never show any 

 indisposition to render themselves useful; 

 the time lost in catching them when re- 

 quired, is frequently severely felt by the 

 farmer. I have known half a day consumed 

 in this way, by a hard working man, and all 

 his farm help. Still, as his grandfather 

 never soiled his horses, he would not, but 

 contented himself by declaring the horse 

 should never go unhoppled again. Hoppling 

 is a result of pasturing. It is a bad prac- 

 tice, and ruinous to the gait of any animal, 

 besides rendering him incapable of defend- 

 ing himself properly from the flies; the con- 

 sequence is, he becomes poor in flesh, and a 

 disgrace to his hard-hearted stubborn master. 

 If the farmer will not take my advice and 

 soil his horses constantly, for his own advan- 

 tage, he should do it partially. He should 

 cut grass for them during the day, and turn 

 them into some well clothed meadow at 

 night. Thus they will escape the detest 

 able fly, and enjoy some quiet and ease, and 

 be enabled to select grasses more congenial 

 to their tastes, than those he had cut for 

 them. In the agricultural report for Essex, 

 in England, it is said, that two horses have 

 been supported during four months upon a 

 quarter of an acre of lucerne, with scarcely 

 anything given to them besides; and that 

 six horses, at hard work, have been kept on 

 lucerne, instead of hay, but with an allow- 

 ance of oats and cut straw for twelve weeks; 

 six from the first cut, four from the second, 

 and two from the third: which, valuing the 

 hay saved at six shillings per horse per week, 

 would amount to $'S6. A paper in the com- 

 munications to the Board of Agriculture in 

 England, states, that in one year, 23 horses 

 have been kept 20 weeks, and in the next, 

 28 horses during 18 weeks, upon eleven acres 

 alone; which gives an average of three roods 

 per horse in nineteen weeks. J^n oxdipary 



sized cart horse could consume easily 100 

 lbs. of green food of any kind in one day, 

 and a small allowance of oats, say two quarts. 

 If the same horse was allowed to run over 

 a three acre field, he would probably destroy 

 three hundred pounds of food, while obtain- 

 ing one hundred. I have found that a square 

 rod of ground, covered with a luxuriant crop 

 of grass, is sufficient to last a horse one day, 

 with a small quantity of oats. 



The English cavalry allow their horses in 

 barracks 12 pounds of hay and 10 pounds of 

 oats per day, on which, they say, they are 

 ept in high condition. I cannot imagine-it 

 possible, as in 1,000 parts of the best grass, 

 there are only 82 parts of soluble nutritive 

 matter, 72 parts of mucilage or starch, 4 

 parts of saccharine matter, and 6 parts of 

 insoluble matter. If the cavalry horses stood 

 still, I should imagine that quantity of food 

 might be sufficient, as inactive horses re- 

 quire much less food than horses that are 

 employed. The bodies of horses are all the 

 time wasting, and the waste is proportioned 

 to the activity of the animal; therefore the 

 working horse requires nourishment propor- 

 tional to the waste of his body. A horse 

 soiled will consume as much food as eight 

 sheep: a cow in milk as much food as twelve 

 sheep : an ox when fattening, as much food 

 as ten sheep: a calf as much food as two 

 sheep. 



When you go upon a f^rm, and find the 

 farmers' horses looking plump, well formed, 

 high spirited, and powerful, you are apt to 

 say at once, that horse must have come from 

 prime stock; whereas the credit is entirely 

 due to the farmer, as you may take an ani- 

 mal bred from the best stock in existence, 

 and if allowed by the farmer to suffer depri- 

 vation of proper food, he will never become 

 perfectly developed, either in bulk or propor- 

 tion. He will never be free from disease, 

 and will not have any constitution. The 

 same rule will apply to all kinds of animals, 

 whether man or beast. When, therefore, 

 you find on a man's farm, fine stock, well 

 proportioned, and of the standard size, you 

 must award him the credit, and not the 

 breed. You may take an animal of the most 

 inferior kind, and by judicious use of nutri- 

 tive food, make him attain great size; for 

 examples, look at our monstrous hogs, made 

 sometimes to weigh 1,100 lbs.; our immense 

 prize oxen which have reached more than 

 3,000 lbs., the parents of which are fre- 

 quently moderate in size. Who will say 

 this degree of perfection was not produced 

 by the farmer. 



It is from artificial feeding that our mar- 

 kets are supplied the year round with fine 

 beefi pork, calves and sheep, and the same 



