PREPARATION OF FOOD. 211 



Steeping consists in throwing the grain into cold or tepid 

 water for twelve or twenty-four hours. It absorbs much wa- 

 ter, it softens, and it is easily eaten ; but I know not that 

 anything is gained by such change. If the grain be drier 

 and harder than usual, or the horse's teeth bad, or his mouth 

 sore, steeping may be of some service. The horse drinks 

 less water, but perhaps he receives as much with the grain 

 as he refuses from the pail. 



Masking. — When hay is steeped in boiling water, it is 

 said to be masked. The juice, and perhaps all the nutritive 

 matter, is extracted from the hay and dissolved in the water. 

 This liquor, termed hay-tea, is seldom given to horses, and 

 indeed horses do not appear to be very fond of it. Some, 

 however, have tried it, and they say that it makes a lean 

 horse put up flesh very rapidly. Perhaps it might be useful 

 after a day of extraordinary exertion, when the horse is more 

 disposed to drink than to eat. it might be tried as a substi- 

 tute for gruel. For this purpose clover hay is better than 

 ryegrass. It should be of the best quality ; the water boil- 

 ing, and the vessel closely covered till the tea be cool enough 

 for use. 



Mashing is nearly the same as masking ; but both the sol- 

 id and the fluid are given. A warm bran-mash is made by 

 pouring boiling water upon the bran and covering it up till 

 cool. Tepid water, it is supposed, does not answer so well ; 

 does not render the bran so digestible and mucilaginous as it 

 becomes by steeping in boiling water. A cold mash is made 

 at once, by pouring cold water upon the bran ; but if it be 

 irue that the bran is improved by heat, hot water should be 

 used, and the mash exposed till cold. After all, there may 

 be no difference. Barley and oats are each occasionally 

 made into mashes ; that is to say, they are steeped in water, 

 hot or boiling, and the water is given with the grain. When 

 the surgeon orders the horse to be put on mashes, he always 

 means those made of bran. 



Boiling. — The articles usually boiled are turnips, potatoes, 

 grain of all kinds, beans, and peas. It is not likely that 

 boiled food has exactly the same properties as that which is 

 raw. To the eye and to the taste it is different, and proba- 

 bly it is different to the stomach also. It may yield more nu- 

 triment ; it may yield less ; possibly it may furnish nutriment 

 of a different kind, or, without any alteration in the quantity 

 or quality of the nutriment, the food may be more or less 

 rapidly or easily digested : but there is no positive proof, no 



