COOKING TtiS FOOD. 309 



els. If it is desired to make a horse fat in a short time, feed corn- 

 meal and shorts, with cut straw, to which add a pint of cheap mo- 

 lasses. Nothing like this for recruiting and filling up a horse that is 

 out of sorts or poor. 



If the horse is exhausted, or when sufficient time cannot be 

 allowed for him to eat and partially digest a full meal, he may be 

 greatly refreshed by a draught of warm gruel, or, in summer, of cold 

 water containing a small quantity of meal. 



Cooking the Food. 



My attention was some time ago called to the advantage of 

 cooking feed for horses. . Those who have given the most careful ■ 

 study to the principles and best methods of alimentation, state, first, 

 that well-crushed grain is not only more readily, masticated, )3ut 

 more easily digested ; second, that cooking the feed enables the ani- 

 mal to assimilate a far larger percentage of the nutrition than from 

 the same amount of grain fed in its raw state. The amount of grain 

 is claimed, to be from 20 to 30 per cent. According to report, the 

 Germans have long used cooked feed for their army horses, and 

 found it to excel all other kinds of feed in giving greater strength 

 to the horse, and increasing his power of endurance. It is also 

 claimed by the most successful stock-breeders in England and on 

 the Continent, that horses and cattle, thrive better, and are far 

 healthier, when fed on cooked feed than when fed on any kind of 

 raw feed. 



I copy from a circular published by the Chicago Steam Cooking 

 Feed Company, some of the advantages of cooked feed for horses-: — 



1. Many horses are so voracious and eat so rapidly, that they do not properly 

 masticate their feed, and, in other cases, the grain is too hard to be properly masti- 

 cated. '., 



2. It is estimated that more than one half of the diseases which afflict horses, 

 are induced by the use of uncooked feed, and its bad effects upon the digestive ap- 

 paratus. 



3. The hard, flinty covering of raw grain can neither be properly ground by the 

 teeth, nor is it soluble in the stomach, and most of it passes from the stomach un- 

 digested. 



4., All energy expended in attempts to assimilate certain parts of raw feed, is 

 just so much waste and positive loss. 



Among the advantages of using properly cooked feed for do- 

 mestic animals are the following : — 



1. Cooked and ground feed is much more palatable for the animal, and is very 

 easily masticated. 



2. The hard, dry covering of grain, when it has been steamed and ground, be- 



