DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD. 73 



Mouldiness is usually produced by faulty preservation or 

 storing, and is due to the presence of various kinds of micro- 

 scopical fungi, which, damp or wet having removed many of 

 the nutritive elements of the hay or grain, completely destroy 

 forage if allowed to grow on it unchecked. It appears as a 

 fine dust, or black, bluish, or brown patches, according to the 

 kind of mould. Mouldy hay, if dry, breaks readily, and when 

 shaken gives off what appears to be dust, but which is really 

 the spores of the fungus, and which are very irritating to the 

 eyes, nostrils, and throat. 



Forage damaged by these moulds is not only less nutritious 

 than clean forage, but it is more or less indigestible and 

 injurious, causing loss of condition, colic, constipation, diar- 

 rhoea, inflammation of the intestines, diabetes, skin disease, 

 paralysis, and sometimes abortion in breeding animals. Mouldy 

 oats have been known to kill horses fed on them for only a 

 short time. 



Insects, very minute in size, also damage forage, but not at 

 all to the same extent as the parasitic fungi. 



CHANGING FOOD. 



Care is often necessary in changing from one kind of food 

 to another kind. A change from dry to green food, if sudden, 

 is very likely to cause diarrhoea ; and even imperfectly dried, 

 or new hay, will often do this, especially with hard-worked 

 horses, or those required to go at a fast pace. A sudden 

 change from oats to barley, from a poor to a rich diet, or from 

 an easily digested to a dry, indigestible food, is to be guarded 

 against. Changing from oats to wheat is especially to be care- 

 fully done, or serious damage will ensue ; indeed, wheat for 

 horses is at all times a dangerous diet. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD. 



The grass family .furnishes by far the largest number of 

 articles consumed by animals as food, for however diverse in 



