FOOD. 193 



it is not, because extra trouble is enforced by it, recommended for general 

 adoption. 



Thus, without that excitement, delay, and ill humor which too fre- 

 quently distinguishes feeding time in large establishments, each horse 

 may be speedily supplied. All needed is a little drilling by the head 

 groom, so each man may understand his office : that when fulfilling it, 

 no one may obstruct the path of his fellow. The steaming or macera- 

 tion of food may, by certain readers, be imagined to have originated 

 in a desire to write pretty about horses. The author denies such a 

 motive. Besides, the plan has no pretense to originality. It has for 

 many years been practiced : but not in high-class stables. The writer, 

 however, had an inducement, in truth, to recommend its general adop- 

 tion, and, therefore, to some portion of the implied charge he may plead 

 "guilty." 



All horse owners bitterly complain of the expense involved in the 

 support of an animal. Nor is this surprising, when it is considered that 

 one-half of its provender passes through the body of the animal undi- 

 gested, being no more than so much material literally wasted ; while a 

 great portion of the remainder, though dearly purchased, is absolutely 

 without nutriment. As a matter of economy, nothing should be placed 

 in the manger which is not fit to be appropriated, or is not proper to 

 nourish the strength. Such is the purpose of food : that is not food 

 which does not feed, although, like the clay balls of the American Indian, 

 it may be swallowed under the promptings of appetite ; for when received 

 into the stomach, like the substance alluded to, it probably will engender 

 disorder. 



Improper articles, therefore, presented as food, are in a double sense 

 extravagant. In the first place, they do not sustain the life; in the 

 second place, they entail the expense and loss of service which are 

 inseparable from disease. Whether with horse or with man, every- 

 thing offered as food should do more than merely appease the appetite. 

 Unless it also uphold the vigor, devouring it is to waste the substance; 

 and whatever adapts provender to the requirements of the digestion, 

 cannot in reason be esteemed either extraVagant or unnecessary. Of 

 course, prepared food entails trouble. It cannot be forked into a rack 

 or tossed into a manger speedily and without soil to the garments. 

 There are plenty of reasons why grooms should cling to "hard meat;" 

 and why this class of servants should object to prepared fodder. 



Grooms, however, as generally treated, are most exceptionable domes- 

 tics. Other servants are occupied throughout the day. The stable 

 attendant turns the key upon the day's duties at six o'clock in the 

 evening. He is the most wasteful and costly of all the servants in or 



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