AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 61 



This seems to be an instance of that strange logic which so 

 often appears in popular literature, namely : oats are a stimulating 

 food ; avenine exists in oats ; therefore avenine is a stimulant. 

 The writer is not prepared to deny that oats may have peculiar 

 food properties that render them especially valuable as food for 

 horses, but he believes that it should be distinctly understood that 

 so far the only proof of this is a somewhat generally accepted 

 opinion. It is safe to affirm also that this opinion is derived from 

 common observation, rather than from any accurate investigations 

 and it is just possible that it may share the fate of many other 

 popular notions having a similar foundation. It is certainly 

 to be considered that oats are a valuable food for horses if for no 

 other reason because they can be fed very freely without danger of 

 injury to health. Is it not possible that this food attained its present 

 reputation at a time when corn was the particular food with which it 

 was compared, and now that the markets afford such a variety of 

 other foods equally nitrogenous or more so, can we be sure that 

 oats are as essential as they once were to the development of a 

 good piece of horse flesh ? 



The practical application of this discussion is this : Oats are a 

 comparatively costly feeding stuff, and if they are not essential to 

 the horse ration there would be a financial advantage in discarding 

 their use so long as present prices hold. 



