400 MAINTENANCE OF ANIMALS. 



This is one reason why carriers' horses and pi'St-horses, horses, in 

 a word, which have long and severe work to perform, receive the 

 larger portion of their allowance in corn. The inconveniences of 

 bulky rations are much less felt in the cov/-house than in the stable ; 

 not to speak of their particular organization, which actually enables 

 them to take in a much larger quantity of food than the horse, the 

 steer and the cow have always a longer time allowed them for their 

 meals than are regularly given to the horse. 



The experience of nearly a whole year having satisfied me that a 

 cart-horse may have half his ration in roots or tubers, I set out from 

 this fact in the experiments which I instituted. 



EXPERIMENTS ON THE MAINTENANCE OF HORSES WITH MIXED FOOD. 



The usual allowance to a horse at Bechelbronn for the twenty- 

 four hours consists of : 



Hay . . 22 lbs. 



Straw . . . 5J 



Oats . . . . 7i 



With this ration the teams are kept in excellent condition. Two 

 teams were selected as subjects of experiment, each consisting of 

 four horses ; these I shall distinguish by the titles. Team No. 1 

 and Team No. 2. Each remained under the care of the same ser- 

 vant throughout. Team No. 1 was composed of: 



Braun, a mare, 7 years old. 



Schimmel, a horse, 7 " 



Hans, do., 16 « 



Gaty, do., 8 " 



Team No. 2 was composed of : 



Old Fox, a mare, 16 years old, 



Braun, do., 5 " 



Nickel, do., 14 " 



Hengst, a horse, 5 " 



EXPERIMENT I. 



One half the allowance of hay was replaced by potatoes lightly 

 steamed ; 280 of the tubers being assumed, according to theory, as 

 equivalent to 100 of hay. The ration, therefore, consisted of: 



Hay . . . .11 lbs. 



Straw . . . 5i 



Oats . . . . 7j 



Potatoes . . . 30 8-10 



The potatoes were broken down and mixed with chopped straw, 

 and never put into the mangers until cold. 



From accidental circumstances, particularly bad weather during 

 the course of the autumnal labors, the teams were exposed to very 

 hard work, an event which of course throws uncertainty over the 

 results of this trial. After having been upon the course of food in- 



