FEEDING HORSES. 383 



centrated nature would have been avoided. This is not 

 theory ; we have thoroughly tested pea-meal (a food almost 

 exactly similar, chemically) by feeding horses under heavy 

 work upon 16 Ibs. of pea-meal, mixed and fed with one 

 bushel of cut hay, the hay being moistened so that the 

 pea-meal would adhere to the hay and all be eaten together. 

 Long hay was given in addition, making about 12 Ibs. of 

 hay. Four horses were thus fed for four months, per- 

 forming full daily labor. The average weight of the 

 horses at the beginning of the experiment was 1,050 Ibs., 

 and at the end, 1,065 Ibs. We carefully watched the con- 

 dition and health of the horses, and found both quite 

 satisfactory. There was no indication of a feverish state of 

 the system, or any disturbance of the digestive functions, 

 and the appetite remained very uniform with every appear- 

 ance of content. We should have continued this ration 

 indefinitely but for the higher price of peas than of corn 

 and oats. 



If we examine this ration of pea-meal and hay, we find 

 it well adapted to heavy work the digestible albuminoids 

 being 3.82 Ibs., carbo-hydrates 13.91 Ibs., and fat .44 Ibs. 

 the ejitire digestible nutrients amounting to 18.17 Ibs., 

 with a nutritive ratio of 1:4. This is slightly deficient in 

 fat, with an excess of muscle-forming matter ; but we regard 

 it as better than Wolff 's ration for heavy work, given on 

 page 377. The fact that the horses made a slight gain in 

 weight proved that the extra muscle-forming food was well 

 applied. But the principal object was to determine the 

 effect of mixing this concentrated food with hay to give 

 bulk and a porous condition to the food in the stomach. 

 This effect was emphasized from an opposite experiment, 

 tried at the same time, by a neighbor who did not think it 

 made any difference whether the pea-meal was mixed with 

 the hay or fed separately, with the hay given uncut. He 

 also fed four horses, of about the same weight as those in 



