164 STABLE ECONOMY. 



FIFTH CHAPTER. 



FOOD. 



1. ARTICLES OF FOOD II. COMPOSITION OF FOOD III. PREP- 

 ARATION OF FOOD IV. ASSIMILATION OF THE FOOD V. IN- 

 DIGESTION OF THE FOOD VI. PRINCIPLES OF FEEDING— 



VII. PRACTICE OF FEEDING VIII. PASTURING — IX. SOILING 



•X. FEEDING AT STRAW-YARD. 



r 



ARTICLES USED AS FOOD. 



Kinds of Food. — In this country horses are fed upon oats, 

 hay, grass, and roots. Many people talk as if they could be 

 fed on nothing else. J3ut in other parts of the world, where 

 the productions of the soil are different, the food of the horse 

 is different. " In some sterile countries, thev are forced to 

 subsist on dried fish, and even on vegetable mould ; in Ara- 

 bia, on milk, flesh-balls, eggs, broth, &c. In India, horses 

 are variously fed. The native grasses are judged very nu- 

 tritious. Few, perhaps no oats are grown ; barley is rare, 

 and not commonly given to horses. In Bengal, a vetch, 

 something like the tare is used. On the western side of In- 

 dia, a sort of pigeon-pea, called gram (cicer arietinwn), forms 

 the ordinary food, with grass while in season, and hay all the 

 year round. Indian-corn or rice is seldom given. In the 

 West Indies, maize, Guinea-corn, sugar-cane tops, and some- 

 times molasses, are given. In the Mahratta country, sa<t, 

 pepper, and other spices, are made into balls, with flour and 

 butter, and these are supposed to produce animation, and to 

 fine the coat. Broth made from sheep's-head, is sometimes 

 given. In France, Spain, and Italy, besides the grasses, the 

 leaves of limes, vines, the tops of acacia, and the seeds of 

 the carab-tree, are given to horses."* 



[In the United States many different kinds of natural and 

 cultivated grasses, green or dried as hay, are used in feeding 



* Loudon's Enc. of Agric, p. 1004. 



