FOOD. 187 



derange the animal's system — a fact whicli has long been proved to the 

 horse-copers and other rogues who live by imposition. A pound of shot 

 will, for a time, conceal the peculiar breathing characteristic of broken 

 wind, though this temporary escape from an outward symptom of dis- 

 ease is often followed by disastrous consequences. Hard grain, if fired 

 from a rifle, would prove no contemptible missile ; much of it is bolted 

 by the quadruped before which it is cast, and consequently passes out 

 of the body undigested. The actions of sparrows and the luxuriant 

 green crops which often adorn the tops of dunghills are both evidences 

 of the waste attending the ordinary mode of feeding. 



General, all but universal, as the employment of oats may be in this 

 kingdom, very few of Her Britannic Majesty's subjects have the remotest 

 idea of the use which. this corn subserves in the animal economy. Drivers 

 will stop, when proceeding upon long journeys, and order their nags large 

 feeds of oats, to enable them to complete the distance, or, in other words, 

 to aid the muscular power. Corn, however, is now ascertained to gen- 

 erate only fat, which rather detracts from than favors the development 

 of motor energy. It certainly sounds strangely, after the expenditure 

 of millions of money, after ages of experience, and after the training of 

 horses was thought to have been fostered into a science, to hear it 

 broadly asserted that the purpose and end attained by the administra- 

 tion of England's favorite feed for horses is totally mistaken ! Such, 

 however, is the unvarnished truth ; the gallops or the sweats that fre- 

 quently injure animals while in training are no more than the efforts of 

 ignorance to remove those consequences which its own acts have occa- 

 sioned. They are attempts to get rid of the fat, which the employment 

 of much corn has naturally produced. 



Besides oats, however, beans are used in the best stables ; but there 

 is much dispute as to the quantity which a horse can advantageously 

 consume. The English field bean should always be hardened by age 



ENGLISH BEANS — A GOOD SAMPLE. 



before it is suited for the manger; even then, it should be prepared; for 

 a substance which, when rattled in a measure, emits a sound like to that 

 produced by so many pebbles striking one against the other, can hardly 

 be in a condition proper for comminution between most sensitive and 

 highly -organized members. They should be crushed and subjected to 



