ARTICLES USED AS FOOD. 173 



as well as hay to divide the grain and give it a wholesome 

 size. It must be understood that food ought to possess bulk 

 proportioned in some degree to the capacity of the digestive 

 organs. Nutriment can be given in a very concentrated 

 state, yet it is not proper to condense it beyond a certain 

 point. Grain alone will give all the nourishment which any 

 horse can need, but he must also have some fodder to give 

 bulk to the grain, though it need not of necessity yield much 

 nutriment. Straw, therefore, may often be used where hay 

 is used. This has been proved very fairly in this country. 

 The late Mr Peter Mein, of Glasgow, kept his coaching- 

 horses in excellent order for nearly eight mcmths, without a 

 single stalk of hay. Durmg dear hay seasons it is the cus- 

 tom with many large owners, to make straw form part of the 

 fodder. Wheat-straw is preferred, but few object to that of 

 the oat. 



But when horses are living chiefly on hay, as many farm- 

 horses do, during part of the winter, it must not be supposed 

 that an equal quantity, or indeed any quantity of straw, will 

 supply the place of that hay. The stomach and bowels will 

 hardly hold hay enough to nourish even an idle horse, and as 

 straw yields less nutriment in proportion to its bulk, enough 

 can not be eaten to furnish the nutriment required. The de- 

 ficiency must be made up by roots or grain. 



When much straw is used, part or the whole ought to be 

 cut into chafl". It is laborious work to masticate it all, and in 

 time it will tell upon the teeth, which in old horses are often 

 worn to the gums, even by hay and grain. 



I had written thus far on straw in previous editions of this 

 work. Yet Nimrod, in the " Veterinarian," for 1839, at page 

 330, wishes " Mr. Stewart had said something of wheaten 

 straw, the use of which for certain work, he is inclined to 

 think well of." That I had said something may be seen by 

 consulting the first and second editions, both published before 

 1839. W^hy Nimrod should have a wish implying that I had 

 omitted to notice this article, must be explained by the gen- 

 tleman himself. 



Nimrod's residence in France seems to have given him a 

 very favorable opinion of wheat straw. He says: "I am 

 not only convinced that to the fact of horses in France eating 

 as much straw as hay, is to be attributed their generally 

 healthy condition, and also the non-necessity for physic, even 

 to those who work hard and eat much grain (post and diligence 

 horses for example) ; but I was informed by Lord Henry 



15* 



