132 HORSE SENSE. 



OIL-MEAL IS FED TO SOFTEN THE SKIN. 



"Oil-meal may also be given to good advantage, as it aids greatly 

 in putting on flesh, and also gives the skin a soft and mellow touch. All 

 mangers and feed boxes should be cleaned out twice a day, and the cobs 

 and other refuse thrown out behind the horses and taken out with the 

 manure. By all means give the horses sufficient time for their stomachs 

 to rest, and this can be done by giving the first feed at 5 in the morning 

 and the last between 6 and 7 at night. 



FLOATING THE TEETH. THAT HORSES MAY GRIND THEIR 

 FEED WELL. 



Another point that ought to be mentioned is floating the teeth, 

 when the horses are put in, and before commencing to feed them. It 

 is best to get a veterinarian to do this, as he has the proper instruments, 

 and where there are so many to do, it can be done more rapidly. Float- 

 ing the teeth is a point which a great many people overlook, and is in 

 many instances the real cause of a horse being out of condition. When 

 a horse has a number of sharp projections on his teeth, the gums become 

 raw and sore, so that he does not masticate his feed thoroughly, and con- 

 sequently indigestion often results, and the horse runs down in condi- 

 tion. In a load of horses shipped from Kansas it was found upon exam- 

 ination that a large number of them had sharp projections on the outer 

 edge of the grinders, and their mouths were in such a condition that a 

 person would wonder how they could eat at all; but after they were 

 floated down quite a marked change was soon noticed. I think it will 

 pay better to put the horses' teeth in shape, and let them do their own 

 grinding, than it will to grind the grain for them. 



GAINED AS HIGH AS FIVE AND A HALF POUNDS WEIGHT 

 PER DAY. 



"When horses are fed in this manner, good gains are generally real- 

 ized. In one instance a horse fed in this manner made a gain of five 

 and one-half pounds per day for a period of fifty days, or in 100 days he 

 gained 550 pounds. And in several instances, with as many as a dozen 

 head, a gain of three and one-third pounds per day for a period of ninety- 

 days was obtained. 



IS THIS STUFFING PROCESS GENERALLY OF ADVANTAGE? 



This stuffing without exercise may enable the feeder to get the horse 

 in condition to go onto the market for sale at a good profit for his 

 feed and trouble, but how will it be with the buyer who' wants to put the 

 horse (so prepared) at hard work? 



FEEDING WORK HORSES. 



This is a subject in which every horseman is, or should be, particu- 

 larly interested; but it is a subject about which there is a great diver- 

 sity of opinion and theory, much of which is unworthy of considera- 

 tion. That there is a right way of feeding is demonstrated both in this 



