FEEDING AND WATEBING. 27 



kinds of food, when equally valuable material of other kinds is 

 cheap and plenty. He has only to adjust the rations in such a 

 manner that they will contain about the correct proportions of the 

 various elements. Those proportions should be varied according to 

 the season, the amount of work required, and the constitution of the 

 horse. In estimating the nutritive ratio of any food, the amount of 

 " fat " is multiplied by two and four-tenths (3.4), and the amount 

 added to the other carbohydrates. 



TiMOTHT Hay with oats, as remarked above, may well be re- 

 garded in this coimtry as the standard article for feeding horses. 

 But there are many other grasses equally available. In the prairie 

 regions and farther west there are several spepies of blue- joint and 

 other wild grasses scarcely inferior to timothy. Some of these attain 

 immense growth in rich bottoms, and if cut at the right time, and 

 properly made into hay, are both palatable and wholesome for horses. 

 The Muhlenberg grass {Muhlenbergia glomerata), which is found in 

 moist situations, is eagerly sought by horses, and is superior in 

 nutritive value to timothy, either green or as hay. There is a false 

 impression among some horse-keepers that hay, like wine, improves 

 by age. On the contrary, careful experiments show that hay which 

 has been kept more than a year, loses 12.39 per cent of its digestible 

 albuminoids. 



HuNGAKiAN Grass and German Millet, if cut and cured just 

 as the first blossoms appear, make a hay scarcely inferior to timothy. 



Clover and Alfalfa are rich in albuminoids. Either one makes 

 a well-balanced ration with corn-meal, corn-fodder, straw, or other 

 material containing an excess of carbohydrates. Esparsette is an- 

 other name for sainfoin, which has quite recently been cultivated 

 to some extent in Utah, and other parts of the region west of the 

 100th meridian. It will grow in soils containing lime, even if too 

 dry for alfalfa. It contains a greater proportion of nitrogenous ele- 

 ments than clover or alfalfa. 



Corn Fodder is a better feed for horses than is generally sup- 

 posed. But it must be bright and well-cured. If allowed to stand 

 for months in small stooks, with the butts on the soft ground, and the 

 tops and leaves exposed to the weather, it is unfit for fodder. On 

 the other hand, if stored away while damp in a bam loft, and allowed 

 to mould and rot, it is not only unpalatable, but actually pernicious 

 to the health of animals which are compelled to eat it. "Fodder 

 com," which is raised expressly for the leaves and stalks, should be 

 cultivated in drills, wide enough apart to admit of ciiltivation and 



