68 AMERICAN STABLE GUIDE. 



necessary in times of hard work. This seems to be well 

 understood among horsemen of all grades; or, if it be not, 

 how are we to account for the great diversity of the feed- 

 ing of horses everywhere ? The horse for pleasure, or for 

 the family carriage of the gentleman, does not require the 

 amount of food that is demanded by the horses attached to 

 the scrapers of the contractors of the Pacific Railroad, 

 which are fed five pounds of barley three times daily, with 

 as much bunch or bufi"alo grass as they can eat at night. 

 Horses consuming a less quantity of feed would not stand 

 the work exacted from them, because of their faulty diges- 

 tion and slow assimilation. A good measure of the value 

 of the working properties of a horse is, the less feed eaten 

 the less is he able to stand severe work. Thus we are 

 often told by the owner of a horse, that if it could but eat 

 twelve quarts of oats in the day, the animal could go 

 faster, stand the exertion, and would be greutly increased 

 in value ; but as it is, the exertion of to-day destroys his 

 speed and appetite on the morrow. This is one of the 

 reasons why but about nine per cent, of the horses bought 

 by a certain city railroad company in this city stand the 

 work for any length of time. Thus the boiler cannot gen- 

 erate steam to keep the machinery long enough in motion. 

 The carriage-horse used by ladies for carrying them to the 

 shop, the opera, or the ball, requires but little feed, when 

 we compare its work with that of the animal in the dray, 

 railroad car, or business wagon. 



The keeper of the livery stable is well aware of the 



