FEEDING. 75 



especially if required to go fast, because digestion and 

 severe exertion can never go on together, and moreover 

 purging is apt to ensue. In some cases, broken wind or 

 heaves is thus produced. Avoid giving warm or tepid 

 water to horses that are often driven from home, because 

 cold or well water will then perhaps be given them, which 

 will be liable to produce a congestive chill, followed by 

 lung fever, and in some cases colic. When horses are thus 

 carefully watered, if one or more of them should refuse 

 their accustomed food, something is wrong, and they 

 should not be taken out of the stable to work, or driven 

 further that day ; but an examination should be made as 

 to the cause, with a view to its removal. 



Oats as a feed for horses are considered, by common 

 consent, to be the best that can be used for such purpose, 

 which is confirmed by the good condition of horses so fed, 

 as well as by the chemical constituents produced from the 

 oat. Happily, however, it is not obligatory that oats 

 should be exclusively fed to horses, as their cost is fre- 

 quently much enhanced by the smallness of the crop. On 

 the contrary, the cold of winter generally demands a feed 

 of greater heating power than can be obtained from this 

 grain. 



The standard weight of a bushel of oats is thirty-two 

 pounds by law, but very rarely is this reached, especially 

 for the last six or eight years, during which time the 

 weight has been about twenty-six to twenty-eight pounds. 

 In the purchase of oats, allowance can be claimed when 

 7^ 



