82 AMERICAN STABLE GUIDE. 



or a more economical one. In the face of this array of 

 favorable testimony, are we to deny to our horses what we 

 feed to the swine ? We would ask, then, why is it that 

 stablemen, in their selection of the feed of the horse, really 

 reject the good and accept the indifferent? This would 

 not be so universally the case were they to foot the feed- 

 bill every month. Unfortunately, coachmen and grooms 

 as a class have very indifferent notions on stable economy, 

 the effects of which the owner may not feel; nevertheless 

 it has to be paid for. 



The strength of a horse is not developed so much by the 

 quantity and quality of solid feed he is fed upon as on the 

 judicious training accorded him. Animals that remain 

 long without work, as in the sale stable, are very apt to 

 sicken and die within a short time, if placed immediately 

 at hard work, without preliminary light exercise to gradu- 

 ally develope the power that has departed during the 

 period of inactivity. Therefore we do not comprehend the 

 chemist, when he says the harder the work the more oats 

 are to be fed, and can only excuse him when he takes the 

 analogy from Northern Europe, where corn cannot be 

 grown, and where the oat crop is found in its native ele- 

 ment. But in this country no excuse can be given, where 

 the luxuriance of the Indian corn crop cannot be equalled, 

 and the oat crops are comparative failures. To pay one 

 dollar a quart for Norway oats would not be considered 

 economical to feed horses; neither is it good judgment to 

 pay an extravagant price for light chaffy oats, scarcely 



