64 REMARKS ON FEEDING. 



of grain ; therefore hay, to support life, must be given in large 

 quantities ; much time is required to digest it, and a large 

 quantity of saliva and gastric juice to macerate it before it 

 can be digested : all these circumstances are directly opposed 

 to the uses of the horse, to which luxury and the wants of 

 man have applied him. Hay, therefore, should be used as a 

 condiment, to increase the bulk of food to a healthy distention 

 of the stomach ; and as such, very little of it should be used. 

 The salt meadow hay has many objections ; the principal one 

 is, that it is cut too late, after the stems have become tough 

 and fibrous. The effects of insufficient food are too well 

 known to need much description ; debility includes them all ; 

 it invades every function of the animal. And as life is the 

 sum of the powers that resist disease, and if disease is only 

 the instrument of death, it follows, of course, that whatever 

 enfeebles life, or, in other words, produces debility, must pre- 

 dispose to disease. When horses are put to regular daily 

 work, their vital power will be best maintained by a mixed 

 diet, composed of shorts, meal, cracked corn, oats, and hay, 

 the latter cut and mixed with the other articles, which must 

 be moistened ; bearing in mind, however, that horses, like 

 ourselves, vary constitutionally, some being more readily and 

 simply nourished than others. The principal food used in 

 the New England States are oats, hay, and corn; the latter is 

 ground or broken, and sometimes given whole. Oats have 

 quite an extensive use ; these, after being kept some time, 

 give out moisture, which is supposed to render them more 

 wholesome than new. When oats are damaged, they are 

 unfit for the horse; if, however, they areaised, they ought to 

 be exposed to the heat of the sun, for kiln-dried oats produce 

 disease of the bowels and skin, and of the system generally. 

 Much has been written on the advantage of bruising oats for 

 horses, and it has been proved by comparative tests, that a 

 great saving may be thus effected. Some horses will not 

 masticate the oats; hence they are swallowed whole ; an 

 examination of the excrement will prove this to be the case. 

 The most general roots in use are, 1. Carrots, which are 



