206 STABLE ECONOMY. 



The allowance for horses of different kinds varies from eight 

 to twenty pounds per day. Some will eat more, but others 

 will eat less. Taking the whole, he will find how much 

 more hay is consumed than the horses should eat. When it 

 is not necessary to employ additional men to cut the hay, that 

 makes a difference ; some portion of it is always saved by con- 

 verting it into chaff, but the quantity will depend upon the dis- 

 position of the horses to waste, and the care of the stableman 

 in preventing waste. The cost of cutting that which is to 

 mingle with the grain is not great. There is always some one 

 about the place having half an hour to spare for this purpose. 



Some horses will not thrive without an allowance of rack 

 fodder. This is positively asserted by men who have tried 

 cutting very extensively. It may be so ; but I have never met 

 with any very clear proof of it. They say that horses will 

 leave the chaff before them, to devour the same hay uncut, 

 and I have seen them do so, though I can not understand it. 

 The chaff ought to be as acceptable as the hay. Perhaps the 

 circumstance might be attributed to the use of damaged hay. 

 When cut into chaff the horse may refuse it, and yet seem to 

 eat it uncut. He takes the good and rejects the bad. With 

 chaff he has no choice. With horses, unaccustomed to this 

 mode of feeding, and long used to the other, the habit of tear- 

 ing hay from the rack, and selecting the most esteemed por- 

 tions, may perhaps have become a source of gratification. If 

 there be any, however, who will not thrive as well upon chaff 

 as upon hay, the number must be very small. At first, the 

 horse may not feed so heartily, but, in general, this happens 

 for only a short time. 



When the fodder is all cut, the horse must be often fed. 

 If he gets more than he is disposed to eat, he soon learns to 

 shake it up and turn it over till he extracts all the grain. In 

 doing so he soils the chaff, makes it wet, and the moisture 

 spoils it in two or three hours. The horse will not eat this. 

 At next feeding hour another allowance is added to that which 

 was left ; and a horse is induced to feed, but he does not feed 

 heartily. The only remedy lies either in giving less at a time, 

 or in giving none at the next feeding hour, when it is found 

 that the preceding allowance has not been finished ; or, after 

 the horse is done feeding, that which he leaves may be taken 

 away. All this care is seldom bestowed, especially by strap- 

 pers. Chaff-feeding does require almost or quite as much 

 care to prevent waste as hay-feeding. This is not denied even 

 by the strongest advocates of the system. Without care the 



