374 The Feeding of Animals 



work performed, and the necessity of feeding a labor- 

 ing animal somewhat proportionately to what he does. 

 It should be borne in mind constantly that when the 

 intensity of effort of the horse increases, even if only 

 the same work is performed in a shorter time, the food 

 needs per unit of work are greater. If a driver in 

 making the regular number of trips to the railroad 

 station needlessly hurries his horse, or if a drayman 

 whips his team into a fast walk and then lets it stand 

 idle, more food must be consumed than if the slowest 

 possible gait was allowed. 



Source of the ration for working horses. In treating 

 of this matter we must, in the first place, consider the 

 digestive apparatus or storage capacity of the horse. 

 It is certainly not adapted to the consumption of large 

 quantities of coarse food, as is the case with ruminants. 

 If a horse at severe labor needed 17.7 Ibs. of digesti- 

 ble dry matter per day, he could get it from hay only 

 by eating over 40 Ibs. a most absurd requirement. It 

 is especially necessary, therefore, with hard-working 

 animals, that the larger part of their nutriment come 

 from the concentrated feeding stuffs. Ten to 12 Ibs. 

 of hay is all a draft horse should consume in one day. 

 Working horses on the farm generally eat too much 

 coarse fodder. 



The net values of feeding stuffs are also important 

 in this connection. It has been shown that the net 

 energy value of a unit of digestible matter from dry 

 hay is less than with that from the grains, and conse- 

 quently when it is necessary to supply an animal with 

 a large amount of energy for external mechanical uses, 



