ON SOILING AND ITS ADVANTAGES. 25 



the age of the hay, I coincide with these remarks ; but I 

 cannot agree with his choice, and much prefer the meadow 

 hay such as I have described, when equally well made, to 

 any and all others for horses in strong work. 



On soiling, in which I thoroughly believe, for a change 

 in the spring he says : — 



" Clover, trefolium, vetches, or lucern may be used, and 

 carrots in winter. Grass in the spring is not only food but 

 medicine, and expeditiously cures disease. It carries off 

 worms and promotes all the secretions, and removes as it 

 were the whole mass of fluids in the body, which it restores 

 to the highest state of perfection of which it is capable." 

 " Sailors," he goes on to say, " from eating dry and salt 

 food are subject to scurvy, and are cured by fresh greens 

 and ripe fruit ; " and adds, " it is the same with horses who 

 are fed on dry food ; they are likewise subject to the scurvy, 

 which in them is called the farcy." 



Having said I agree with the system of occasionally 

 giving green food in small quantities as an alterative in 

 summer and carrots in winter, without discussing the simili- 

 tude existing between the scurvy in the human subject 

 and farcy in the quadruped, I pass on to notice his further 

 remarks on change of diet. 



" Malt mixed with the food," he says, "should occasionally 

 be given as agreeable and wholesome. Barley is too purga- 

 tive, but when boiled is easy of digestion and is given 

 to horses when they are sick or to prevent costiveness." 

 "Oats," he continues, "are generally given to horses in 

 Britain ; but they are apt to make them too costive ; to 

 prevent which a bran-mash is given once a week, or as 

 often as circumstances may require." Beans he recom- 

 mends, and wheat and barley for a change, but, "new corn 

 like new hay, should not be given." 



