II 4 THEORY OF FEEDING. 



CLEANING OF FOOD. 



The cleaning of corn is a point of stable management to 

 which special attention should be paid ; because foreign 

 substances in the food are apt to give rise not only to ordinary 

 digestive disturbances, but also to the formation in the 

 intestines, of calculi and concretions, which are very often 

 fatal to their bearer. " Experience amply proves that the 

 presence in the horse's food, of indigestible particles, especially 

 if they be of an irritating nature, is a fertile cause of calculus. 

 The frequency of this complaint in the stables of many 

 large firms has been greatly diminished by the adoption of 

 means for the removal of such possible nuclei. One of 

 the best preventives is the use of an automatic separator 

 provided with magnets, which attract and thus remove all 

 particles of iron and steel from the corn passed over them. 

 In small stables, the careful use of a sieve is imperative. 

 Rogerson has pointed out that in foreign corn, among other 

 sources of danger, are to be found numbers of nails and heads 

 of nails which are employed to tack down the canvas that 

 lines the holds of vessels which carry the corn in bulk. . . . 

 Hunting mentions that the indiarubber ring of a mineral 

 water bottle formed the nucleus of a calculus which he 

 examined on one occasion. . . . There is some evidence to 

 show that forage which contains a quantity of the hairs and 

 husks of oats, or meal dust, is liable to give rise to intestinal 

 concretions, which are hardly ever found among animals 

 whose food is carefully looked after " ( Veterinary Notes for 

 Horse-Owners). See page 158. 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 



Although boiling and steaming vegetable food tend, like the 

 action of the digestive juices, to render it soluble ; they bring 

 about its more or less complete saturation with water, which is 



