FEEDING 95 



both muscle and fat on the horse that is worn down by 

 labour, and are almost specific for hide-bound. Some 

 farmers have thought so highly of lucern as to substitute 

 it for oats. This may do for the agricultural horse of slow 

 work, but he from whom speedier action is required, and 

 the horse of all work, must have hard meat within him. 



Carrots. — The virtues of this root are not too greatly 

 esteemed. There is little food of which the horse is fonder. 



Nutriment contained in the following vegetables — 1,000 

 parts of wheat contain 955 parts of nutritive matter; 

 barley, 920; oats, 743; peas, 574; beans, 570; potatoes, 

 230 ; red beet, 148 ; parsnips, 99 ; carrots, 98. 



Of the grasses, 1,000 parts of the meadow cat's tail 

 contain, at the time of seeding, 98 parts of nutritive matter, 

 narrow-leaved meadow grass in seed, and sweet-scented 

 soft grass in flower, 95 ; narrow-leaved and flat-stalked 

 meadow grass in flower, fertile meadow grass in seed, and 

 tall fescue in flower, 93 ; Swedish turnips, 64 ; common 

 turnips, 42 ; sainfoin, and broad-leaved and long-rooted 

 clover, 39 ; white clover, 32 ; and lucern, 23. 



Thus much of the articles of the horse's food ; we will 

 now return to the subject of feeding him. 



When horses are worked very hard, the practice of giving 

 what is called manger-meat alone has been adopted, and 

 with great success, according to the statement of those who 

 have given this plan most trial. Manger-meat is nothing 

 more than a mixture of corn with hay cut into chafl" 

 instead of being put into the rack. The advocates of this 

 plan assert that a horse required to go through much work 

 flnishes his food quicker than with rack-meat before him, 

 lies down sooner, and consequently has a longer period for 

 rest than he would if treated in the usual way. This may 

 be very true as regards some horses, but there are, in fact, 

 very few who lie down directly after feeding ; and a great 

 proportion of horses, after having finished their manger- 

 meat, will pick over their straw, and eat such parts of it 

 as are not much soiled, in preference to lying down. The 

 Americans, in addition to chopping up their horses' hay, 

 grind their oats coarsely, and mix the whole together. For 

 farm-horses, while baiting, such a plan may be a good 

 one ; but horses used for pleasure are generally allowed 

 plenty of time for feeding, and there can therefore neither 

 be any necessity for adopting this system. Horses, again, 



