276 avery's own farrier. 



matter, with the same bulk (as near as you can), as you 

 did when feeding oats and hay. Nature plainly shows 

 this to be a correct principle, and also the importance of 

 a change of diet occasionally, in the seasons, in the 

 fruits, and in the green food she yields for our suste- 

 nance. Extract the nutritive properties from the food 

 we eat, and take our food in that form, will it long sus- 

 tain life? Certainly not. — Liehig. The bony frame 

 work of animals, owes its solidity to phosphate of lime, 

 says Johnson, and this substance must be furnished by 

 the food. The ordinary kinds of food contain a large 

 quantity of vegetable fibre or woody matter, which is 

 more or less indigestible, but which is indispensable to 

 the welfare of herbaceous animals, as their digestive 

 organs are adapted to rough and bulky food. The addi- 

 tion of a small quantity of food, rich in oil and albumi- 

 nous substances, may be made advantageously, but 

 neither hay alone, nor concentrated food alone, give the 

 best result. This fact should be impressed on the mind 

 of every farmer, and by every day practice. Every ani- 

 mal of a higher organization than a worm (and they 

 often crawl out of the earth and partake of the cucum- 

 ber and cabbage plants), needs a diversity of food to 

 make up a healthy animal structure. The similarity to 

 other green food, together with the pectic acid that 

 carrots contain, causing thorough digestion of other 

 food, renders them a desirable article of food for the 

 horse. 



The horse may be compared (with some propriety) to 

 the steam engine or railroad locomotive, the lungs being 

 the furnace, the stomach the boiler containing the water, 



