36 THE FAMILY HOSSE. 



ration as follows : For a horse weighing a thousand pounds, six 

 pounds of com and six pounds of oats ground together, with twelve 

 pounds of clover hay, would make a good average daily ration. The 

 clover should be run through a cutter and moistened, and the meal 

 incorporated with it. Clean, bright oat straw substituted for half 

 the clover or other hay, and two pounds of Unseed meal added, would 

 make a good feed for a work horse, and not add to the cost as 

 figured above. 



"For a drivLQg horse nothing can excel oats as a grain food, and 

 for a horse either driving or working, the gi-ain food should exceed 

 in weight the hay or bulky portion of his rations, for the obvious 

 reason that the horse's stomach is small in comparison to the size of 

 the body, and designed to digest concentrated, nutritious food. 

 Every horse-owner should keep on hand linseed meal, or a quantity 

 of flaxseed, and feed it to the animal three or four times a week, or 

 whenever the animal shows signs of constipation. This has a large 

 percentage of muscle-forming material, has a soothing effect upon 

 the stomach, and improves digestion and health." 



Overfeeding should be as carefully avoided as underfeeding. 

 Indeed, the consequences of cramming with too rich or too much 

 food are more speedy, and often more fatal, than are those of neg- 

 lect or insufficiency. A horse standing idle does not require and 

 cannot consume as much food as when it is kept at work. The 

 food necessary to sustain steady labor becomes injurious if con- 

 tinued during a lengthened cessation from work. Its rations must 

 be reduced when it is detained in the stable for any considerable 

 time by bad weather or other cause. Overfeeding and lack of exer- 

 cise are the source of many serious diseases, the most usual taking 

 the form of paralysis and spinal meningitis. 



Regularity in feeding is of great importance. The horse is a 

 good timekeeper as to its own meals, and is worried by any delay 

 or irregularity. Not only should feeding time be strictly observed, 

 but no sudden or violetit changes should be made in the character 

 of the food. There is no more prolific cause of colic than a change 

 from an accustomed food to one widely dissimilar, however harm- 

 less or suitable it may be when the transition from one to the other 

 is gradual. 



Nostrums like nitre, rosin, sulphur and all the so-called " con- 

 dition powders,"' should be kept away from a horse, unless used 

 intelligently as medicine for some well-defined ailment. The prac- 

 tice of giving such things regularly or frequently with the feed 

 is pemicJQUS. Saltpetre and rosin are ^.ctive divuretics, irritating to 



