262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pul). Doc. 



quantity 1)}^ measure of bran. This keeps the bowels open 

 and active, preventing that engorgement of the system liable 

 to occur when the heavier feeds are continued. 



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 develop- 

 ment 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 

 sufficiency in quantity and a variety of elements be supplied 

 in the food of workino- and o^rowino- 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 un- 

 satisfactory, expensive and wrong in principle. Aside from 

 the fact that a single grain with hay may not furnish the 

 elements in sufficient 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 mixture of corn, oats and bran, with 

 perhaps 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 ha}^ 

 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 fiire of horses. This does 

 not apply so much to the products of poor land as to defects 



