256 STABLE ECONOMY. 



and not cut, the horses wasted much of it. Cutting prevent- 

 ed all waste. 



In the winter of 1836, the horses got no hay. Mr. Mein's 

 stock was exhausted by the 20th of September, and at that 

 time hay was both dear and bad. He used straw instead of 

 hay, from the 20th of September till the 15th of May. Each 

 horse got eight pounds, with sixteen pounds of grain, prepared 

 and served in the same way as the hay. The allowance of 

 turnips was rather larger. After May, good straw could not 

 easily be procured, and from that time to July, 1837, one half 

 of the fodder was given in hay. 



Mr. Mein tried raw wheat. He gave three pounds per day 

 to each horse, deducting three pounds of oats. The horses 

 worked and looked as well as usual, but their bowels seemed 

 to be out of order, for the dung was pale, clay-like, and fetid. 

 There was no other objection to the wheat. 



Mr. Croall of Edinburgh gives oats, beans, hay, grass, and 

 carrots. The hay is all cut, and given along with the grain ; 

 the oats are bruised, and the beans split or broken fresh every 

 day. The winter allowance of grain is 14 pounds per day. 

 The beans are one to three of the oats, by weight. In sum- 

 mer only twelve pounds are given. 



Hunters. — The horses employed in the field vary so much 

 in size and breeding, and are treated so variously in different 

 places, that it is difficult to give any useful account of the 

 mode in which they are fed. Those who follow the hounds 

 only once or twice a month usually do so upon their hack, an 

 ordinary road-horse, whose labors as a hunter do not require 

 any particular difference in his feeding. During the hunting 

 season he may receive more than his usual allowance of 

 grain, but in other respects he is treated as a saddle-horse. 

 He is stabled all the year, and his work, never very great, is 

 not such in winter as to demand the repose which is given to 

 hunters for two or three months in summer. 



But in all hunting establishments the horses are treated in 

 a different manner. Their labors for the season generally 

 commence about the end of October or beginning of Novem- 

 ber, and terminate in March or April. From this time till the 

 month of July, when training for the ensuing winter commen- 

 ces, the horses are idle, or nearly so. Hence there is much 

 difference between the summer and the winter feedinor. In 

 winter the food consists of oats, beans, and hay ; carrots and 

 barley are sometimes, though very seldom, added to these. 



But there are two modes of summering the hunter: by one 



