348 



THE KOTHAMSTED EXPERIMENTS. 



was one-tenth less than No. 1, was subsequently adopted. 

 Even then the horses rather gained in weight. Finally, as it 

 was considered that the standard or " Previous " ration was 

 too high, the ration for work, as given in the bottom line of 

 the table, which is one-and-a-half time as much as the 

 " Maintenance Ration, No. 1," and about one-tenth less than 

 the "Previous" ration, was adopted. It is, however, said 

 that under the new rigime the horses were somewhat under- 

 fed, but whether the reduced ration is still maintained we 

 are not aware. It will be observed that the proportion of 

 the highly nitrogenous leguminous corn (beans) was very 

 small compared with that of the gramineous grains. Still, it 

 will be seen presently that the proportion was very consider- 

 ably higher than in the case of the omnibus horses of Paris. 



The following table gives the average daily ration of the 

 horses of the General Omnibus Company of Paris for each of 

 the six years— 1879, 1880, 1884, 1885, 1886, and 1887. The 

 average number of horses was about 13,000, and their average 

 weight was from 1200 to 1240 lb., whilst, so far as the evi- 

 dence goes, those of the Petites Voitures Company weighed 

 little more than two-thirds as much ; and certainly the former 

 are much heavier than as a rule are the omnibus or tramway 

 horses of our own country. The figures are calculated from 

 the results given in the annual reports of M. E. Lavalard, 1 

 the general secretary of the company, the quantities being 

 converted from kilograms into their equivalent in English 

 pounds : — 



TABLE 84. 



It will be seen that the actual amount of dry substance 

 supplied per head per day is nearly twice as much as in the 

 case of the Petites Voitures horses ; that is, much more in 

 proportion to a given live-weight. It will be further seen 

 that the proportion of beans to cereal grains is much less 

 than in the case of the Petites Voitures horses, and was reduced 

 to a very small quantity in the later years. In fact, the corn 



1 Rapports sur Us operations du service de la Cavalerie et des Fourrages. 



