35 



The effects of a deficiency of food upon the organism is not less 

 marked than those resulting from over-feeding. This applies not 

 alone to the total amount supplied, but also to any of the essential 

 elements. A deficiency of proteid constituents in a food causes 

 rapid wasting of the muscles and loss of energy. The absence 

 of any essential salt in a food supplied growing animals leads to 

 imperfect development of the bony system. Sodium chloride is 

 required by all tissues of the body, particularly the blood. In 

 order to secure normal development of the body and to maintain 

 it in a healthful condition, it is necessary to supply in the food all 

 of those elements required for the complete nourishment of every 

 tissue in the body. It is therefore essential that a suflflciency in 

 quantity and a variety of elements be supplied in the food of 

 working and growing animals. 



In many cases farmers feed their horses year after year a ration 

 consisting of one kind of grain, the one raised upon the farm or 

 the one bought for the lowest price in market being the one 

 selected. I believe such a practice to be unsatisfactory, expen- 

 sive and wrong in principle. Aside from the fact that a single 

 grain with hay may not furnish the elements in suflScient quantities 

 required for the building up of the various tissues, is it not fair to 

 suppose that horses, like men, relish a change of diet? Experience 

 so teaches. A horse will after a time tire of corn, and, although 

 fed in liberal amounts, the animal does not keep in good condition 

 of flesh and spirit. A mixtui'e of corn, oats and bran, with per- 

 haps the addition of a small amount of oil meal, is sure to furnish 

 all the essential food constituents required, and is preferred by 

 most animals to a single grain ration. Salt must be supplied in 

 larger quantities than is found in hay and grains. The practice 

 of keeping it continually within reach of the horse in the form of 

 "rocks," "bricks" or "rolls" is preferable to giving it mixed 

 with the grain. 



Foods about which there are any doubts regarding quality are 

 best omitted from the bill of fare of horses. This does not apply 

 so much to the products of poor land as to defects in quality due 

 to improper curing, preservation, or the growth of vegetable or 

 animal parasites upon the feed. To be sure, crops grown upon an 

 impoverished soil are not as nutritious as those grown on a fertile 

 soil. They do not nourish the animal body as well, but the effects 

 upon the health of the animal to which they are fed are not to be 

 feared so much as those arising from the use of such things as 

 musty, mow-burned hay; heated, mouldy or partially decayed 

 grains or roots. Such substances are not only deficient in nutri- 

 tive constituents, but may contain material produced by decom- 



