PRACTICE OF FEEDING. 253 



which has been most extensively adopted by large coach pro- 

 prietors. 



Mail, Stage, and Fast-Boat Horses. — Many of these 

 horses are fed in the old way. In winter they receive oats, 

 beans, bran, and hay ; in summer, oats, beans, hay, and grass, 

 all given without preparation, and only three times a day. 

 But a new mode has been much adopted by the owners of 

 nearly all the large studs. The food consists of more arti- 

 cles ; it is often prepared with a degree of care that in the 

 good old times would have been deemed preposterously troub- 

 lesome ; the horses are fed oftener, and articles are used which 

 many still deem unfit for horses, and even poisonous. 



Mr. Lyon of Glasgow was the first to introduce the hay-cut- 

 ting system into the west of Scotland. It has been practised 

 in his establishment for fifteen years back. For a long while 

 he bruised the oats and split the beans, but now both are giv- 

 en entire. The chaff, without a portion of which grain is 

 rarely given, ensures the mastication of these articles. 



The ordinary feeding consists of oats, beans, and hay ; but 

 barley is often given both raw and boiled. Every horse re- 

 ceives about six or seven pounds of rack hay at night. There 

 are five feeding hours ; the first at six, the others at nine, one, 

 five, and eight. At each time the horse receives one half-peck 

 of a mixture which usually contains 5 bushels of oats, one of 

 beans, and 6 of cliafl^. The last is in heaped measure. In 

 five feeds of this mixture, there are one peck and a quarter of 

 grain, and as much chaff. The daily allowance will therefore 

 be, of fodder, cut and uncut, about 9 or 10 pounds, and of 

 grain about 13 or 14 pounds. The quantity, however, is not 

 precisely limited. Some horses will eat less, and others 

 more. They get what they will take, the feeder being care- 

 ful not to give more at one time than the horse will eat. 



In winter the horses get boiled food every night. It is com- 

 posed of barley and beans, to which a few turnips are some- 

 times added. Three measures of barley and one of beans go 

 over as many horses as four of oats and one of beans. Some 

 hay chaff is added, and this mixture forms the fifth feed. 

 Carrots are given raw during the day ; but when considerably 

 dearer than turnips, turnips supply their place. Grass is some- 

 times given in summer, but not generally. A certain quantity 

 is taken in every morning for the sick, the feeble, and the 

 lame ; if not all consumed by these, the remainder is given to 

 others- 



22 



