254 HORSE PORTRAITURE. 



and hominy. There is more nutriment in the same bulk ; 

 they are easier digested than when fed separately ; most 

 horses like the mixture better, and will eat it when then 

 they would mince over oats alone. Corn, being more laxa- 

 tive than oats, has to be used with discretion, and I have 

 known trainers to err in giving it to animals that would 

 have been better without it. Washy, delicate horses, 

 which can hardly take work enough to learn to trot even 

 without going off their feed, with such a fidgety, nervous 

 organization that any noise or change will discompose 

 them, that scour when they are the least excited, that never 

 need to be sweated under any circumstances, ought never 

 to be fed corn or mashes. All will agree with me that 

 bran ought not to be fed to such as these ; but a majority 

 will say, Why, these are the very subjects that ought to have 

 corn ; it will increase their strength, being stronger food, 

 and you can often get them to eat an ear or two of corn 

 when they would not touch the oats. The English prac- 

 tice of feeding beans, universally recommended by their 

 best trainers for the washy, light-waisted fellows, will be 

 instanced ; and it will be argued, that, because beans and 

 corn are of about the same specific gravity, they are ana- 

 logous in their results. Beans have a constipating ten- 

 dency, which makes them a proper corrective for the lax 

 constitution, while corn increases the evil. 



We will have to take a more fitting time, however, to 

 consider the question of aliment, which is a very impor- 

 tant one. 



I will now leave you, having some business in town 

 which requires my attention. Treat Never Mind as yo*. 

 did last night allowing him to graze half an hour. I will 

 not be here very early in the morning, but I do not want 

 you to drive him till I come. As we have now every 

 prospect of good weather, I do not think there will be 



