88 AMERICAN STABLE GUIDE. 



and iliade into cakes, which are fed to their horses. In 

 Great Britain it is usually boiled, and fed in the evening — 

 fattening the horse, giving a glossy coat, and having an 

 excellent effect in all respects. 



For a sick horse, we know of nothing that assists the 

 effects of medicines and the efforts of nature in the cure 

 of disease like a feed of boiled barley. As already stated, 

 it forms the chief food of horses in the far West, where it 

 is sold for eight cents the pound, and fed to horses on the 

 Pacific Eailroad at the rate of five pounds three times 

 daily — because it is the most economical in every way. 

 We very much doubt whether the same amount of any 

 other variety of food could maintain the condition and 

 strength of those hard-worked horses like barley. In all 

 our large cities, barley is never thought of in connection 

 with the feeding of horses. The recuperating power of 

 boiled or malted barley is truly surprising, and we think 

 many a good and useful horse could have been saved to its 

 owner by a few messes of such material. Let the boiled 

 or malted barley take the place of the weak and deceptive 

 bran-mash, which every horseman will persist in giving to 

 the sick or tired horse ; little thinking of the non-strength- 

 ening quality of such slops when the poor animal wants 

 something more stimulating and strengthening. We do 

 not anticipate that barley will become a general feed for 

 the horse, at least, while corn is so plentiful and so cheap; 

 but we insist that barley shall have a place and its proper 

 one in every stable in the country, if for no other purpose 



