FEEDING. 79 



of Pennsylvania oats as feed for our horses, both in regard 

 to their efficacy and their economy. The report from the 

 Honorable Commissioner of Agriculture for 1868, on the 

 average production of the cereal crops of the country says, 

 that 27.8 bushels to the acre is the amount, while in Great 

 Britain the yield is 60 bushels. These figures of them- 

 selves clearly show how costly it is to feed horses with 

 oats gathered from so many acres of land that could pro- 

 duce a larger and more substantial crop of corn, costing 

 for horse feed less money, because of its sufficiency in keep- 

 ing horses of hard work in excellent condition. We do 

 not mean to advise the total exclusion of oats as a food from 

 the stable, but to show that they can be readily substituted 

 by a less costly and more nutritious feed. Oats when fed 

 to old horses, should be ground or bruised to render them 

 suitable for defective teeth, which cannot chew them when 

 whole, and properly mix them with the saliva. To save 

 the expense of a hay or straw-cutter as well as time and 

 labor for cutting hay or straw into chaff, many stablemen 

 mix oats with corn-meal, making the feed into sufficient 

 bulk, thus supplying the place of cut hay. This may 

 answer a good purpose, but is too costly a mixture. 



Corn when cracked, or in the form of meal and mixed 

 with material to give proper bulk, which in some degree 

 is capable of neutralizing or destroying its heating proper- 

 ties when fed to horses, is not only a valuable and substan- 

 tial, but also an economical feed, and ca?n be with safety 

 fed to all kinds of horses of all manner of work. This has 



