162 VARIETIES OF FOOD. 



LINSEED. 



This grain, which is the seed of the flax plant, contains 37 

 per cent, of fat and oil, and consequently is useful for fattening 

 horses that are low in flesh. It improves the state of the coat 

 in a marked manner, and has a soothing effect in diseased con- 

 ditions of the urinary organs and organs of breathing. A 

 linseed and bran mash is the usual way in which it is given 

 and can be made as follows : Boil I Ib. or I ^ Ib. of linseed 

 slowly for two or three hours until the grains become soft, 

 allowing only just sufficient water, when the linseed has been 

 cooked, to soak up a couple of pounds of bran, \vhich is 

 then mixed in and the whole covered up in the manner 

 employed for making a bran mash. The thicker the mash, 

 the more inclined will a horse be to eat it. 



Instead of giving a linseed and bran mash, it is, as a rule, 

 a better, and certainly an easier, plan to give linseed in the 

 form of linseed meal, I Ib. of which may be added daily to the 

 other grain. The grinding of the linseed will be facilitated by 

 mixing it, before putting it into the mill, with, say, double the 

 weight of maize. One part of this mixture with one part of 

 bran and four parts of bruised oats, will make an admirable 

 food for horses. We may for a time replace the drinking water 

 by linseed tea, which may be made by boiling ]/% Ib. of linseed 

 in two gallons of water for a couple of hours, and then straining 

 off the fluid and letting it cool. I do not think that linseed 

 oil (say a quarter of a pint) mixed through the daily corn, has 

 as good an effect as the meal. 



The outer covering of the grains of linseed contains a large 

 quantity of mucilage (the gum of seeds and roots), which 

 swells up when linseed is boiled in water, and to a much less 

 extent when it is merely soaked in cold water. The mucilage 

 gives the water in which it is present, more or less the character 



