Food Needs of a Working Horse 371 



draft. It appears to be a rule that as the intensity 

 of exertion of the horse increases the food cost of a 

 given amount of labor performed increases. Men of 

 experience recognize this fact in a general way when 

 they insist on favoring their animals to the slowest 

 pace that is consistent with the conditions involved. 



The food requirements of a working horse. There 

 are two general ways of ascertaining the food needs of 

 a working horse, by practical experiments in which the 

 rations are varied until a conclusion is reached as to 

 what will support an animal under given conditions, 

 and by determining through scientific investigations 

 the amount of work performed in various ways and 

 the relation of a unit of food to a unit of work. It 

 would not be far from the truth to state, however, that 

 the feeding standards which are offered to us through 

 investigations made by Boussingault, Wolff, LeClerc, 

 Grandeau, Hoffmeister, Lavalard, Zuntz, Kellner, and 

 others, are the outgrowth of both practical observations 

 and scientific research, a most desirable combination. 

 In a large number of instances the kind and quantities 

 of digestible food consumed daily by working horses 

 have been determined, and in many cases the accom- 

 panying wastes and gain and loss o the animal body 

 have been measured. 



The standard rations now found in German tables 

 are the result of such observations. According to 

 these standards a 1.000 -pound horse requires 11.4 Ibs. 

 of digestible food daily when doing moderate work, 

 13.6 Ibs. for average work, and 16.6 Ibs. for heavy 

 work. With a basal ration of 10 Ibs. of hay the giaiqt 



