258 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



August ?0, 2831- 



Hints on the most Economical Manner of 

 Feeding Horses. 



FROM THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF AGRI- 

 CULTURE. 



To economise the food of working ani- 

 mals, must be admitted to be an object of 

 great public and private importance. The 

 practices of different parts of the country 

 are not all alike perfect in this respect. In 

 Scotland which is behind no country in gen- 

 eral agricultural improvement, there is yet 

 much to be learned in this branch of rural 

 economy. In the general management and 

 economical methods of feeding horses, Scot- 

 land, generally speaking, is greatly behind 

 England; but in England itself, the most 

 approved practices are not always generally 

 known, or universally adopted. 



A great variety of articles, as every one 

 knows, are employed in the feeding of hor- 

 ses; of grains, there are oats, oatmeal bar- 

 ley, bran ; of leguminous plants, there are 

 beans, and peas; of roots, there are the po- 

 tatoe, the turnip, the carrot, and the pars- 

 nip ; of dried grasses and other plants, there 

 are hay, saintfoin, clover, ryegrass, and 

 straw ; and, occasionally, oilier substances, 

 as oil-cake. 



In North Wales where a scarcity of hay is 

 often much felt during winter and the early 

 part of spring, the gorse, or furze, is fre- 

 quently employed to feed both noises and 

 cattle. It is prepared for that purpose by 

 being bruised by small watermills, and when; 

 mixed with a proportion of oats, or chop-i 

 ped or cut hay, it is fuund to be a strong and] 

 nourishing food for the horse. This plant 

 is also similarly used in several districts of 

 the county of Devon. And, in Scoiland, 

 where the furze or gorse abounds in many 

 places, such a practice might be adopted 

 with great advantage. 



Of the different kinds of grain given to 

 horses, the oat is found to be the best adapt- 

 ed to support the strength and spirit of the 

 animal. Amongst roots, the carrot and the 

 parsnip are much valued ; but these altho' 

 they contain more saccharine matter than 

 the potatoe, and although probably equally 

 nutritious, yet, as they require greater nice- 

 ty in their cultivation, and a richer and dee- 

 per soil they cannot be so universally and 

 cheaply raised, and in such large quantities, [ 

 as the poTatoe. The latter growing in al-i 

 most every soil of this island, may be said to 

 be the most useful of all this class of plants, 

 for the feeding of the horses. 



In feeding with potatoes, however, one 

 precaution should never be neglected, which 

 is to steam or boil them before using them. 

 The giving the potatoe in its raw state to the 

 horse, has been fatal to numbers of these 

 valuable animals, especially when on hard 

 work, and overheated by violent exertion. — 

 In its crude state, the potatoe is exceedingly 

 apt to ferment in the stomach of the horse. 



In the feeding of the horse with grain, 

 whatever be the kind given, it should al- 

 ways be bruised ; or, what is better still, 

 coarsely ground. The hay, too, ought to 

 be cut into small lengths, not exceeding half 

 aK inch, nor less than a quarter of an inch ; 

 and a quantity of straw, cut in like manner, 

 should be mixed with it. For the purpose 

 of bruising the grain, and cutting the hay 

 and straw simple machines have been inven- 

 ted, which can be obtained at no very con- 

 siderable cost. In Scotland, where thrash- 

 ing machines are universally employed, it is 

 -recommended that the machinery, for the 



purposes referred to, should be attached and 

 moved by the same power. 



When the grain has been bruised, and the 

 hay and straw cut, it will be necessary to 

 proportion the quantity of each to be mixed 

 together, and to make up a sufficiency of 

 food on which a working horse may subsist 

 for twenty-four hours. And, in order to il- 

 lustrate this, we cannot do better than men- 

 tion a few examples taken from the prac- 

 tice of stables, where this mode has been 

 long and successfully followed. 



In the stables of Messrs. Hanbury and 

 Trueinan, in Spittalfields, where 82 horses 

 are kept, the animals receive all their food 

 in the manger, no hay being ever put into 

 the rack. The stable, which is spacious e- 

 nough to contain this number of horses, is 

 one of the most perfect in all its arrange- 

 ments in London, and being admirably well 

 ventilated, disease rarely occurs. 



The excellent health, condition, and gen- 

 eral appearance of these horses, evince the 

 goodness of the treatment adopted. Thev 

 are fed in following manner. Each horse 

 receives in twenty-four hours 18 lbs. cut hay 

 and straw, the proportion of the hitter being 

 one-eighth; 1 f lbs. of bruised oats. and lib. of 

 bruised beans ; making in all 83 fbs. of food. 

 In summer no beans are given, as they are 

 then found to be too heating ; but in conse- 

 quence of the beans being withdrawn, a 

 small addition is made to the quantity of 

 oats. Half a pound' of salt is given weekly 

 to each horse. This being divided into two 

 portions, one of them is given on Saturday 

 night, and the other on Sunday, and being 

 so administered, the salt generally purges 

 the animal. And on account of this effect, 

 and as the animals received no boiled or 

 steamed food, it is thought better by Mr. 

 Hanbury, to supply the salt in this manner, 

 than to deal it out nightly in small quanti- 

 ties. 



In another stable in Long Lane in Lon- 

 don, belonging to Mr. Higgins, where above 

 300 heavy cart horses are kept doing much 

 daily hard labor, no hay is ever put into the 

 rack. It is always mixed with straw, and 

 cut down into lengths not less than £th of 

 an inch. The hay used is generally clover 

 hay, with one half of barley straw. The 

 oats, barley, and beans, are always coarselv 

 ground before being added to the cut hay. — 

 Although the quantity of hay being 19 lbs. 

 for a very large horse, and 14 lbs. for a very 

 small one, given in the 24 hours, remains 

 unaltered throughout the year, it is found 

 advisable during the same period to alter the 

 kinds and quantities of grain. In winter a 

 larger proportion of beans is given than of 

 oats, the quantity being two-thirds of the 

 former and one-third of the latter. As the 

 spring sets in, the allowance of beans is gra- 

 dually diminished to one-third, the other 

 two thirds being made up of barley, 

 which grain is held to be more cooling lor 

 spring food. But in summer oats are 

 substituted for barley. Of the mixture of 

 these, bruised or ground grains, the elephant 

 size cart-horse receives 20 lbs., the smallei 

 animals 16 lbs. ; and with the addition of 3 

 lbs. of bran during winter, and 4 lbs, during 

 the rest of the year, every large horse thus 

 receives in 24 hours about 40 lbs. of mixed 

 provender, and smaller horses about 33 lbs. 

 Salt is inn given during winter, but always 

 in other quarters of the year; an ounce be- 

 ing then daily mixed up kith the other in- 

 gredients of the food. 



In this last stable as well as in all others, 

 where the same system of feeding is practi- 

 sed, the following method of mixing up the 

 materials of the food is observed. The cut 

 hay is first laid on the floor of the barn or loft, 

 over it the bran, next the bruised or ground 

 beans, and lastly the other ground grain, All 

 the substances are then tossed together, and 

 thus prepared, the provender is ready for use. 



Although we have thus detailed the meth- 

 od of feeding cart horses in some of the 

 best managed stables of London, yve are 

 more inclined to direct attention to the plan 

 followed by Dr Sully of Wiveliscombe, in 

 Somersetshire.* This genileman has for 

 more than 20 years successfully pursued the 

 plan of feeding which are about to detail. 



Its utility and economy are apparent, and 

 we feel confident that it may be generally 

 practiced with advantage. 



Dr. Sully says, that his horses employed 

 in his professional practice, and accustomed 

 to travel at the rate of eight miles an hour, 

 " from the great labor they undergo, have 

 no sinecure place, and yet few people can 

 boast of cattle being in better condition."— 

 In his stable there are no racks to hold the 

 hay. He objects, and we think with fhe 

 greatest reason, to the employing them. In 

 the first place, the groom, if the stables are 

 fitted up with racks, will alwavs fill them, 

 and by so doing tempt the horse to eat too 

 niiich, thus overloading his stomach ; so 

 that when, in this full distended state, he is 

 taken i.utof the stable and put to his work, 

 his wind will be endangered. And not only 

 does the full hay rack often occasion this in- 

 jury to the horse, but it is the cause of great 

 unnecessary waste of provender. It must 

 have frequently been remarked by those who 

 have entered a stable, that all horses, when 

 they have the command of their head, pull 

 the hay out of the rack and throw it under 

 their feet. This is purposely done, that the 

 more tasty portions of the hay may be se 

 lected for food, and the rest rejected. Few, 

 if any, grooms will replace in the rack the 

 hay that has been thus refused, and a great 

 waste of it necessarily ensues. It is Dr. Sul 

 ly's opinion that a horse with a well filled 

 rack will consume and spoil upwards of 30 

 lbs of bay in 21 hours. But » hen it is cut 

 down and mixed with a due proportion ol 

 cut straw and bruised or coarsely ground 

 oats, or other grain, I Olbs are sufficient. 



The details of Dr. Sully's manner of fee 

 ding his horses are worthy of imitation, com- 

 bining, we conceive, convenience and econ- 

 omy of time and labor. In the loft above 

 the stables, are prepared the portionable 

 quantities of the food with which his horses 

 are daily supplied, and a very simple meth- 

 od has been devised to convey it when mix- 

 ed into the manger of each horse. A wooden 

 pipe is made to pass from the loft into each 

 of the mangers, and close by the mouth of the 

 pipe in the loft is placed a tub of size c- 

 nough to contain what is sufficient food for a 

 horse for 2 I hours. To prevent the horse, 

 in searching fir the grain, from tossing out 

 of the manger the mixed food « hich is dropt 

 into it, oaken cross-bars 12 inches distant, 

 aie nailed over it. Between these bars am- 

 ple space remains for the horse to feed. 



As there can be no dependence on the 

 measured quantities of grain or other food 

 given to the horse, from the variation at 

 times in the respective weights of equal quan 



•See in Inlet ■ Letter of hi> in the Sporting Nog 



ozine ferNov. 18S6, 



