FOOD AND ITS QUALITIES. 23 
‘hay, too, should be given at the regulated hours and at 
no other. 
In the important matter of food, he should be supplied 
with the very best of oats; old, certainly, till after March, 
and later if they can be found sweet, and of English growth. 
Winter at 42 Ibs. per bushel, and black tartarian at 40, are 
in my opinion the best, far better than the thick-skinned 
Scotch white oats at 46 lbs. per bushel or even heavier; 
though the latter look to some people preferable to those I 
have described, or indeed to any other. I do not object to 
a few good white oats; but they must be of home growth 
of about 42 lbs. per bushel for mixing with an equal quantity 
of black, such as I have named. But whatever the descrip- 
tion given, they should be the very best of the sort or 
sorts, for it is false economy of the very worst description 
to buy inferior corn, however low the price. In fact, good 
cannot be too dear; whilst middling would be wretchedly 
so as a gift. To supply the latter shows an utter want of 
knowledge of his business on the part of any trainer. 
My antipathy to foreign corn is so great, that I could 
never be induced to buy a bushel, or any larger quantity, 
in my life, knowingly. But I have too much reason to 
believe I was once imposed on, in the year 1847, in having 
supplied to me a load of heavy oats, said to be English, 
which the price warranted, but which turned out to be 
Scotch delicately kiln-dried; a process I failed to detect 
in their appearance, taste, or smell. The result was, they 
gave the horses diabetes, from which weakening disease 
it took them weeks to recover: a plain practical proof of 
their inferiority, and a good reason that none but English 
should be used. Buy of the farmer in preference to the 
dealer, and you know you get the genuine article. To 
