104 Feeding. 



Horse-dealers and grooms who desire to put on 

 a fine coat rapidly, and improve the general 

 condition of animals coming up from the pasture 

 in a lean and poor state, are well aware of this 

 property, and therefore use linseed. The laxa- 

 tive qualities are due to the presence of an oil, 

 known as " linseed oil" obtained by expression 

 from the seeds. As a constantly soft condition 

 of the dung of horses is not a natural, but very pre- 

 judicial state, care must be exercised in order not to 

 use linseed too much. By some the oil itself is 

 used, one or two tablespoonfuls being mixed each 

 night with the bran, chaff, and corn. Horses 

 soon take to it, and improve visibly under 

 its influence, but the reader must be informed 

 that strength is not produced directly by its use ; 

 on the other hand, fat is laid down, and this gives 

 the altered appearance. Indirectly, when good 

 food is used at the same time, the digestion and ap- 

 propriation of the nutritive portions are carried on 

 with greater vigour, and thus the muscular system 

 is regenerated from time to time. The form in 

 which linseed is given to horses is that of solution, 

 or as tea. It is sometimes termed " cree'd linseed." 

 In some districts it is placed in water and boiled 

 until the capsule of each seed bursts from imbi- 

 bition, and the whole becomes a thick mucila- 

 ginous fluid. All the trouble, however, may be 

 saved, as linseed will assume this form quite as 

 well and as rapidly in cold water as by boiling. 



The proportions are about a pound of linseed 



