420 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ble population engaged in the care of sheep. So that estimating 

 the bodies and fleeces at $4 a year, and the average lives of the 

 sheep five years, each fleece was worth in five years, $10. Total 

 loss every five years, 30,000,000 of bodies at $2, and $150,000,000 

 worth of fleeces. Then her total loss, since the gold came in, 

 has been, in sheep, only $36,000,000,000 and that is three times 

 more than all the gold and silver she has ever received from 

 America since its discovery. Add to which a corresponding loss 

 in people, arts, agriculture, &c. 



Mr. Clapp expressed a caution against keeping horses, or other 

 animals, in too small, close stables, where they lacked a supply 

 of pure air. He would keep horses warmly dressed in a good 

 blanket. 



Another member thought horses should not be kept too warm, 

 or they would take cold when going out into the cold air. 



Dr. Waterbury stated that the several City railroad companies 

 in this city kept careful accounts of the kind and amount of food 

 required for their hundreds of horses and mules in daily use, and 

 that they could furnish statistics upon the relative cost and value 

 of the different kinds of food for working animals. 



Mr. Clapp said that in changing the feed of horses, if concen- 

 trated food were employed, a mass was requisite, for if a horse 

 were fed exclusively on oats, he will afterwards devour even 

 buckwheat straw, if he can get at it. He assume d that " a va- 

 cuum" existed in the animal's stomach. The natural food of a 

 horse was hay or grass, and his strength under that diet will 

 continue many years He recommended oats ground with Indian 

 corn, when feeding corn is necessary. Corn at a dollar, and rye 

 or wheat bran at eleven shillings a bushel, will be cheaper and 

 better than oats. It is an erroneous idea that because a horse has 

 been driven, he must have a feed of oats. Put him into the sta- 

 ble, let him get rested, and the grain he requires, let him have 

 it all at night, so as to allow digestion to go on while he 

 is resting. Oats will pass through the intestines unchanged 

 if administered thrice a day, but not if a proper quantity be given 

 at night. Much depends upon how a colt has been raised, as to 

 how he should afterwards be fed. 



Dr. Waterbury was glad to hear attention called to the fact 

 that during the period of digestion an animal ought not to be 

 called on to employ his muscles. If the blood be drawn to the 

 muscles from the stomach, where it had become concentrated du- 

 ring digestion, the result would be that digestion would be more 



