238 STABLE ECONOMY. 



from food after this preparation. Granting tliat it is so, there 

 is still room, I think, for doubting whether it is advantageous 

 to have all the food rapidly digested. Stablemen, who ought 

 to know best, admit the propriety of giving one feed of boiled 

 food every day during cold weather. But they declare that 

 more sickens the horse, and makes him soft ; he perspires 

 profusely, and his energy is soon exhausted. This refers 

 only to horses of fast work, in constant employment. 



The opinions of stablemen on this subject have been much 

 ridiculed. They are too apt to theorize. Instead of telling 

 what they see, they tell what they think. They contend that 

 hard food produces hard flesh, and everybody knows that no 

 horse is at his best when his flesh is soft. This is a fine 

 opening for a mere theorist, who knows anything about anat- 

 omy. Instead of seeking the foundation of the theory, he 

 attacks the theory itself. " This notion about hard food," 

 he says, " is all nonsense. All the food, whether hard or 

 soft, must become a fluid before it can form any part of the 

 system. Therefore, the softer it is when given, the sooner is 

 it dissolved." 



It is quite true, and easily proved, that no food can aflbrd 

 nourishment till it assumes a fluid form. But this is not the 

 way to settle the question. Some men are such inveterate 

 theorists that they always argue when they ought only to ex- 

 periment. 



Place two or more horses, similar in size, age, condition, 

 power, and breeding, at the same work and in the same sta- 

 ble. To one give the food all soft, to another all hard, and 

 to a third give it partly hard and partly soft. Continue the 

 experiment for a month, and then reverse it, by giving to one 

 the food which was given to another. Observe the condition 

 of the horses from beginning to end, and be careful that the 

 result is not influenced by some circumstances not operating 

 equally upon all. One might catch cold, fall lame or sick, 

 and he would not be a fair subject for comparison. This is 

 the proper way to decide the matter. If conjecture should 

 settle it, conjecture is easily made. Thus, soft food contains 

 a deal of water ; probably this water enters the system along 

 with the nutritive matter, and though it may fill up the tis- 

 sues, and produce plumpness, yet it confers no vigor. The 

 nutritive matter which has been obtained from this soft, wa- 

 tery food, has entered the system too rapidly — before it has 

 been sufficiently animalized to form any durable part of the 

 system. I is, therefore, soon and easily evacuated. Ima- 



