ON FEEDING AND THE FOOD. 85 



the non-nitrogenous parts. These are found in Blade But- 

 ter-Corn in larger proportion than in any other description 

 of food, as one pint of Butter-Corn is considered equal to 

 twelve quarts of oats. Butter-Corn has recently been im- 

 ported into this country from the Indies, and can be found 

 at many of the feed stores. The demands of the muscular 

 system are fully supplied by the Black Butter-Corn, as it 

 contains more saline matter than hay, more albumen, 

 starch, fibrine, and sugar, than oats or Indian corn, and 

 more fatty matter than linseed or slippery elm ; and, on 

 the other hand, contains less woody fibre, which is the 

 waste of food. 



A feed of one pint of the Black Butter-Corn per day will 

 be more nourishing to a horse than a peck of oats, as it not 

 only fattens, but, from the quantity of its fatty matter, it is 

 as cooling as linseed. 



In the following pages, therefore, I shall give a description 

 of the several alimentary wants of the horse, and then show 

 in what proportions they are found in the varieties of keep, 

 which have in a measure been described, so as to enable 

 the horse master to make his selection according to circum- 

 stances. All these substances are found in the blood, but 

 this fluid is continually receiving and giving off its various 

 elements. The blood of a horse fed on highly nitrogenized 

 food does not differ on analysis from that of another which 

 has been kept on the opposite kind of diet. Physiological 

 research, however, tells us that muscle is chiefly composed 

 of fibrine, and that every time a bundle of its fibres con- 

 tracts, a certain expenditure of this material is made, calling 

 for a corresponding supply from the blood, which cannot 

 be offered unless the food contains it. Hence the badly-fed 

 horse, if worked, soon loses his flesh, and not only becomes 

 free from fat, but also presents a contracted condition of 



