554 FEEDING AND WATEKING. 



COOKING THE FOOD. 



My attention was some time ago called to the advantage 

 of cooking food for horses. Those who have given the most 

 careful study to the principles and best methods of alimen- 

 tation, state, first, that well-crushed grain is not only more 

 readily masticated, but more easily digested ; second, that 

 cooking the food enables the animal to assimilate a far 

 larger percentage of the nutrition than from the same 

 amount of grain fed in its raw state. The amount of gain 

 is claimed to be from 20 to 30 per cent. According to 

 report, the Germans have long used cooked feed for their 

 army horses, and found it to excel all other kinds of food 

 in giving greater strength to the horse, and increasing his 

 power of endurance. It is also claimed by the most suc- 

 cessful stock-breeders in England and on the Continent, 

 that horses and cattle thrive better, and are far healthier, 

 when fed on cooked food than when fed on any kind of 

 raw food. 



I copy from a circular published by the Chicago Steam 

 Cooking Feed Company, some of the advantages of cooked 

 food for horses : 



1st. Many horses are so voracious and eat so rapidly, that they 

 do not properly masticate their food, and, in other cases, the grain 

 is too hard to be properly masticated. 



2d. It is estimated that more than one-half of the diseases 

 which afflict horses, are induced by the use of uncooked food, and 

 its bad effects upon the digestive apparatus. 



3d. The hard, flinty covering of raw grain can neither be 

 properly ground by the teeth, nor is it soluble in the stomach, and 

 most of it passes from the stomach undigested. 



4th. All energy expended in attempts to assimilate certain 

 parts of raw food, is just so much waste and positive loss. 



Among the advantages of using properly cooked food for 

 domestic animals, are the following : 



1st. Cooked and ground feed is mucn more palatable for the 

 animal, and is very easily masticated. 



