NURSING. 221 



out after each meal. As a rule, during sickness a horse 

 requires laxative food, in order to allay fever or inflammatory 

 symptoms, while supporting the strength. The following list 

 comprises the usual good laxative food employed : Green 

 grass, green wheat, green oats, green barley, lucerne, carrots, 

 parsnips, gruel, bran mash, linseed and bran mash, boiled 

 barley, linseed tea, hay tea, and linseed-oil. Green grass, 

 lucerne, and similar articles of food, should be dried before 

 being given, if cut when in a wet state. Boiled grain 

 should be cooked with as little water as possible, so that it 

 may be floury and comparatively dry when ready ; a little salt 

 should be mixed with it. 



One gallon of good gruel may be made from a pound of 

 meal, which should be thrown into cold water, set on the fire 

 and stirred till boiling, and afterwards permitted to simmer 

 over a gentle fire till the water is quite thick. 



To make a bran mash, scald a stable bucket, throw out the 

 water, put in three pounds of bran and one ounce of salt ; add 

 two-and-a-half pints of boiling water ; stir up well, cover over, 

 and allow the mash to stand for fifteen or twenty minutes until 

 it is well cooked. 



For a bran and Unseed mash, boil slowly, for two or three 

 hours, one pound of linseed, so as to have about a couple of 

 quarts of thick fluid, to which two pounds of bran and one 

 ounce of salt may be added. The whole should be stirred up, 

 covered over, and allowed to steam, as before described. The 

 thicker the mash, the readier will the horse eat it. 



Linseed tea is made by boiling one pound of linseed in 

 a couple of gallons of water, until the grains are quite soft. 

 It may be economically made by using less water to cook the 

 linseed, and afterwards making up the quantity of water to 

 about a gallon and a half. 



Hay tea may be prepared by filling a bucket, after scalding 

 it, with good sweet hay, pouring in as much boiling water as 



