ARTICLES USED AS FOOD. 177 



carrots never entirely supersede grain. Mention is made, in- 

 deed, of an Essex sportsman who gave his hunters each a 

 bushel of carrots daily with a little hay, but no grain ; the 

 horses are said to have followed a pack of harriers twice a 

 week, but the possibility of doing this needs further proof. 

 For slow-working horses, carrots may supply the place of 

 grain quite well, at least for those employed on the farm. 

 Burrows, an English agriculturist, gave his farm-horses each 

 seventy pounds of carrots per day, along with chaff and barn- 

 door refuse, with which the carrots were sliced and mixed. 

 He gave a little rack-hay at night, but no grain. He fed his 

 horses in this way from the end of October to the beginning 

 of June, giving a little less than seventy pounds in the very 

 shortest days, and a little more in spring. The tops of the 

 carrots have been given to horses, and it is said they were 

 much liked and quite wholesome. 



Parsnips. — This root is used a good deal in France : in 

 the neighborhood of Brest, parsnips and cabbages are boiled 

 together and given to the horses warm, along with some buck- 

 wheat flour. In the island of Jersey the root is much culti- 

 vated, and is extensively used for fattening stock, and for the 

 table of all classes. It is said not to be generally given to 

 horses, for it is alleged that their eyes suffer under its use. 

 Arthur Young, however, assures us, that the horses about 

 Morlaix are ordinarily fed upon parsnips, and that they are 

 considered '' the best of all foods for a horse, and much ex- 

 ceeding oats." They are eaten both raw and boiled. They are 

 most usually washed, sliced, and mixed with bran or chaff. The 

 leaves, mown while in good condition, are eaten as readily as 

 clover. 



Mangel-wurzel, Yams, and the Turnip Cabbage, have each 

 been employed as food for horses, but I have not been able 

 to learn with what effect. 



Grain. — In this country the grain consists chiefly of oats, 

 beans, and pease, but barley is now in very common use, and 

 wheat is occasionally given. The last two articles, however, 

 are rarely used to the exclusion of oats, but are generally 

 mixed with them in certain proportions. Rye, buckwheat, 

 and maize, are used as grain in various parts of the world, 

 but very little or not at all in this. 



Oats. — There are several varieties which need not be de- 

 scribed. 



Good Oats are about one year old, plump, short, hard, rat- 

 tling when poured into the manger, sweet, clean, free from 

 chaff and dust, and weighing about forty pounds per bushel 



