Water. 101 



boiler, in the saving of provender, without taking into 

 the account their improved condition and capability 

 for work. A horse fed on potatoes should have his 

 quantity of water materially curtailed. 



Prof. Low says that fifteen pounds of potatoes yield 

 as much nourishment as four pounds and a half of oats. 

 Von Thayer asserts that three bushels are equal to 112 

 pounds of hay ; and Curwen, who tried potatoes ex- 

 tensively in the feeding of horses, says that an acre 

 goes as far as four acres of hay. 



Water. — This is a part of stable management little 

 regarded by the farmer. He lets his horses loose 

 morning and night, and they go to the nearest pond or 

 brook, and drink their fill, and no harm results, for 

 they obtain that kind of water which nature designed 

 them to have, in a manner prepared for them by some 

 unknown influence of the atmosphere, as well as by 

 the deposition of many saline admixtures. The differ- 

 ence between hard and soft water is known to every 

 one. In soft water, soap will curdle, vegetables will 

 not boil soft, and the saccharine matter of the malt can- 

 not be fully obtained in the process of brewing. There 

 is nothmor m which the difierent effect of hard and soft 

 water is so evident as in the stomach and digestive or- 

 gans of the horse. Hard water, drawn fresh from the 

 well, will assuredly make the coat of a horse unaccus- 

 tomed to it stare, and it will not unfrequently gripe 

 and otherwise injure him. Instinct or experience has 

 made even the horse himself conscious of this, for he 

 will never drink hard water if he has access to soft ; 

 and he will leave the most transparent and pure water 

 of the well for a river, although the stream may be 



