484 FOOD. 



Professor Stewart very properly remarks that " many horses swallow their 

 oom in great haste, and when much is eaten, that habit is exceedingly dan- 

 gerous. The stomach is filled— it is overloaded before it has time to make 

 preparation for acting on its contents — the food ferments, and painful or dan- 

 gerous colis ensues. By adding chaff to his com, the horse must take more 

 time to eat it, and time is given for the commencement of digestion, before 

 fermentation can occur. In this way chaff is very useful, especially after 

 long fasts*." 



If, when considerable provender was wasted, the horse maintained his condi- 

 tion, and was able to do his work, it was evident that much might be saved to 

 the farmer, when he adopted a system by which the horse ate all that was set 

 before him ; and by degrees it was found out that, even food somewhat less 

 nutritious, but a great deal cheaper, and which the horse either would not eat, 

 or would not properly grind down in its natural state, might be added, while the 

 animal would be in quite as good plight, and always ready for work. 



Chaff may be composed of equal quantities of clover or meadow hay, and 

 wheaten, oaten, or barley straw, cut into pieces of a quarter or half an inch in 

 length, and mingled well together ; the allowance of oats or beans is afterwards 

 added, and mixed with the chaff. Many farmers very properly bruise the oats 

 or beans. The whole oat is apt to slip out of the chaff and be lost ; but when 

 it is bruised, and especially if the chaff is a little wetted, it will not readily 

 separate ; or, should a portion of it escape the grinders, it will be partly prepared 

 for digestion by the act of bruising. The prejudice against bruising the oats is, 

 so far as the farmer's horse, and the waggon horse, and every horse of slow 

 draught, are concerned, altogether unfounded. The quantity of straw in the chaff 

 will always counteract any supposed purgative quality in the bruised oats. Horses 

 of quicker draught, except they are naturally disposed to scour, will thrive better 

 with bruised than with whole oats ; for a greater quantity of nutriment will be 

 extracted from the food, and it will always be easy to apportion the quantity of 

 straw or beans to the effect of the mixture on the bowels of the horse. The 

 principal alteration that should be made in the horse of harder and more rapid 

 work, such as the post-horse, and the stage-coach horse, is to increase the 

 quantity of hay, and diminish that of straw. Two trusses of hay may be cut 

 with one of straw. 



Some gentlemen, in defiance of the prejudice and opposition of the coachman 

 or the groom, have introduced this mode of feeding into the stables of their 

 carriage horses and hackneys, and with manifest advantage. There has been no 

 loss of condition or power, and considerable saving of provender. This system 

 is not, however, calculated for the hunter or the race-horse. Their food must 

 lie in smaller bulk, in order that the action of the lungs may not be impeded by 

 the distension of the stomach ; yet many hunters have gone well over the field 

 who have been manger-fed, the proportion of corn, however, being materially 

 increased. 



For the agricultural and cart horse, eight pounds of oats and two of beans 

 should be added to every twenty pounds of chaff. Thirty-four or thirty-six 

 pounds of the mixture will be sufficient for any moderate-sized horse, with fair, 

 or even hard work. The dray and waggon horse may require forty pounds. 

 Hay in the rack at night is, in this case, supposed to omitted altogether. The 

 rack, however, may remain, as occasionally useful for the sick horse, or to 

 contain tares or other green meat. 



Horses are very fond of this provender. The majority of them, after having 

 been accustomed to it, will leave the best oats given to them alone, for the sake 



* Stewart's Stable Economy, ['. 225. 



