374 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



The result of the experiments on concentrated foods and 

 coarse fodders seems to be borne out fully by practical ex- 

 perience in this country, in feeding the large numbers of 

 horses used for hard labor on street railroads and omnibus 

 lines, and with the practice of all livery men in cities and 

 towns. It is found to be most profitable to feed only from 

 9 to 12 pounds of hay per day to each horse, and the rest 

 of the ration in grain, either ground or whole. The ten- 

 dency for the last twenty years has been to lessen the quan- 

 tity of hay or other coarse fodder, while the oats or ground 

 feed has been increased. 



These experiments of Wolff show pretty clearly why the 

 practice has taken this form. The concentrated food is 

 better digested than the coarse fodder, after a certain 

 amount is given. It requires a proportion of fibrous food 

 to keep horses healthy ; and from 25 to 40 per cent, of the 

 whole weight of the ration for a work horse may be hay, 

 and this will be economically digested. The light livery 

 horse usually gets 8 to 10 pounds of hay and 12 pounds of 

 oats; but the work horse gets 12 pounds of hay and 16 

 pounds of grain, often corn and oats ground together. It 

 is well settled in practice that concentrated food is cheap- 

 est for the largest proportion of the ration for horses. And 

 this appears to be scientifically explained in these German 

 experiments. But we must not fail to gam what informa- 

 tion these experiments afford in relation to the 



STANDARD RATION 



required by a horse of given weight. The horse experi- 

 mented upon had a weight varying from 1,100 to 1,200 

 Ibs., and, when fed on hay exclusively, ate from 22 to 27^ 

 Ibs. per day. This was equal to from 19.4 to 24 Ibs. of dry 



