466 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The amount and kind of food consumed by animals depend on 

 the amount and kind of labor they perform. Fattening animals 

 are generally fed dilferently from working animals. Species and 

 age make marked differences in the kind of food required by the 

 same habits; climate and season of the year, also, to a certain 

 extent. 



Exercise produces with animals both an increased consumption 

 of food and an increase in weight to a certain limit. Beyond this 

 point there is increased consumption of food but a diminution in 

 weight to a second limit, beyond which both are diminished and 

 the animal is "used up." 



The committee have received returns from the following stage 

 lines in this city, as shown in the accompanying table : 



Stage Lines. «g 'S =->, wg 'Z % '^ 2^ 



^ 2 „-3 ^-^ ^g ?, i^ ° 



e^ ™ a G G ajUj_, 



^ S ° ° ° n 



[z; F=5 P^ Ch &H 1-1 



Eed Bird Stage line, 116 17 U 18 1^ 3^ 



Spring St. do 105 21 14 20 4 3 1-7 



Seventh av. do 227 22 10 18^ 1 2^ 



Sixth Avenue Kailroad, Ulorses, 117 17 10 14 2 



J Mules, 211 17 10 7 2 



N. Y. Consolidated StaReCunipany, ... 335 24 8 17 2-9 2^ 



Washington stables, six livery horses, .. 12 7^* 



It is the object of the stage proprietors to get all the work out 

 of their teams possible without injury to the animals. Where 

 the routes are shorter the horses consequently make more trips, 

 so that the different amounts and proportions of food consumed 

 is not so apparent when the comparison is made between the 

 different lines, as when it is made also with the railroad and 

 livery horses. The stage horses consume most, and thfe livery 

 horses least. 



The stage horses are fed on cut hay and corn meal wet and 

 mixed in the proportion of about one pound of hay to two 

 pounds of meal — a ratio adopted rather for mechanical than phy- 

 siological reasons,' as this is all the meal that can be made to ad- 

 here to the hay. The animals eat this mixture from a deep 

 manger. 



The New-York Consolidated Stage Company use a very small 

 quantity of salt. They think it causes horses to urinate too 

 freely. They find horses do not eat so much when worked too 

 hard. The large horses eat more than the small ones. Prefer a 



* And Eix quarts of oats at noon. 



