Fooi>. a93 



beans are grouad with it, and yield more nourishment ; the stom- 

 ach is more slowly filled, and therefore acts better on its contents, 

 and is not so likely to be overloaded ; and the increased quantity 

 of saliva thrown out in the lengthened maceration of the food, 

 softens it, and makes it more fit for digestion. 



GhafT 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 chafT. 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 grind- 

 ers, 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 

 liorse, and the wagon 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 bruised oats. Horses of quicker dtaught, except they are nat- 

 urally 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 quan- 

 tity 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, how- 

 ever, 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 distention of the stomach ; yet many hunters 

 have gone well over the field who have been manger-fed, the pro- 

 portion of grain, 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 sufBcieni 

 for any moderate-sized horse, with fair, or even hard work. The 

 dray and wagon horse may require forty pounds. Hay in the 

 rack at night is, in this case, supposed to be omitted altogether 

 The rack, however, may remain, as occasionally useful for the 

 sick horse, or to contain tares or other green feed. 



Horses are very fond of this provender. The majority of them. 



