8 THE ECONOMY OF THE STABLE. 



causing them to be more perfectly masticated. It is also thought, 

 that if the horse's hay were given principally, or even wholly, in 

 the form of chaff, it would be the means of a great saving of hay, 

 as well as of insuring a perfect mastication of the oats. There are 

 circumstances to be considered, however, which may make rather 

 against this opinion.* Horses certainly prefer eating hay from 

 the rack : and when it is good, and given four times a day in 

 small quantities, the horse will eat his allowance with avidity, or 

 Avith that appetite which will insure a perfect digestion and 

 assimilation of the food ; and so will it be with oats when they 

 are good, cleanly sifted, and given in small portions at a time ; 

 and if spread thinly on the bottom of a wide manger, there will 

 be no danger of his eating them too greedily. If he has any 

 sharp edges in his grinders which prevent him from masticating 

 properly, they must be rasped or filed, as will be described here- 

 after. Oats thus given, and not in excess, but duly proportioned 

 to the horse's work, will be perfectly masticated, digested, and 

 assimilated : the chyle formed from such a diet, and so dispensed, 

 will be pure, and consequently the blood will be so also. Now 

 let us contrast with this simple, wholesome, and economical 

 mode of feeding that which is commonly adopted. The hay, in 

 the first place, is either of indifferent or bad quality, and given 

 in unlimited quantity. The oats are generally, perhaps, tolerably 

 good ; but sometimes they are indifferent, or even musty and 

 unwholesome : they are dispensed irregularly, and often in too 

 lai'ge quantities at a time, and so thrown into the manger that a 

 horse may easily fill his mouth, and in such a way that he must 



* ]\Ir. Stewart, in his work on Stable Econoiny, after enumerating at length 

 the advantages and disadvantages of chatF-outting, thus sums them up: — 



" That, where the stablemen are careful, waste of fodder is diminished, 

 though not prevented. 



" That, where the racks are good, careful stablemen may prevent nearly 

 all waste of fodder, without cutting it. 



" That an accurate distribution of fodder is not a very important object. 



" That no horse seems to like his corn the better lor beins mingled with 



DO 



chart. 



" That, among half-starved horses, chaff-cutting promotes the consumption 

 of damaged fodder. 



" That full-fed liorses, rather than eat the mixture of sound and unsound, 

 will reject the whole, or eat less than their work demands. 



" That chair is more easily eaten than hay : that this is an advantage to old 

 horses, and others working all day ; a disadvantage when the horses stand 

 long in the stable. 



" That chalf ensures complete mastication, and deliberate ingestion of the 

 corn : that it is of considerable and of most importance in this respect : tliat 

 all the fodder need not be mingled with the corn, one pound of chaff being 

 suflicicnt to ensure the mastication and slow ingestion of four pounds of 

 corn. 



" Tiiat the cost of cutting all the fodder, especially for heavy horses, is 

 repaid only where the hay is dear, and wasted in large quantities. 



"That, among hard-working horses, bad fodder should never be cut." 

 -Ed] 



