1/4 VARIETIES OF FOOD. 



quantity of corn than hay made from younger and more 

 nutritious grass. Animals which have to depend for their 

 sustenance mainly on hay will naturally do best when that 

 article of fodder has a high nutritive value. 



Hay tea, which may be prepared by steeping hay in boiling 

 water and then allowing the infusion to cool, contains 

 valuable nutritive material in the form of mineral salts and 

 other soluble substances. 



Although, as we have seen, straw has very little nutritive 

 value, it is rich in woody fibre, the presence of a certain 

 proportion of which is a necessary constituent of the food 

 of horses. Hence the larger the ration of corn, the more 

 appropriate will be an addition of straw. Therefore, if a 

 horse has a large daily allowance of corn (say, 18 Ib. or 

 more), straw, in the form of chop, will probably suit his 

 digestive organs better than the most nutritious hay. Here we 

 have a point of stable economy which should not be neg- 

 lected by an intelligent horse-owner. It is an instructive fact 

 that, as a rule, the more corn a horse gets, the more inclined 

 will he be to prefer straw to hay. Hence the so-called vice 

 of eating straw bedding, is often an act of obedience to the 

 stimulus of a healthy appetite. We may here remember, as 

 I have already pointed out, that horses in many Eastern 

 countries are fed only on grain and straw for the greater 

 part of the year, and keep in excellent condition during 

 that time. If a horse be stinted in corn, it would of 

 course be much better to add nutritious hay to his ration 

 than innutritious straw. I have known dangerous attacks 

 of constipation to be caused by giving horses too much 

 straw to eat, and at the same time depriving them of a 

 sufficiency of corn, hay, and other nourishing food. Oat 

 straw is more nutritious than any other kind of straw, 

 especially when it is young. 



Chop or chaff is the usual term applied to chopped hay or 



