280 Feeds and Feeding. 



The ability of the horse to perform a definite amount of work was 

 therefore the same whether it was performed in less than six hours 

 or in more than eight hours. 



440. An example of severe work. — ^Wolff cites the intense work 

 of the mail-coach horses on the route from Plieningen to Stutt- 

 gart, Germany. Two strongly-built, spirited horses, in good 

 flesh, drawing a heavy mail-coach, often carrying eight passen- 

 gers, go twice daily out and home, up and down the mountain 

 road at a trot. The total distance traveled is 35 miles, with an 

 average speed of 7.87 feet per second. These horses are fed 

 daily per head from 22 to 24 pounds of oats mixed with cut straw, 

 and in addition hay ad libitum, of which they eat very little — 

 often none at all. The oats consumed contained from 13.2 to 14.5 

 pounds of digestible matter, and the day's work represents at 

 least 21, 660, 000 foot-pounds per horse. When the feed equivalent 

 of the work performed is subtracted, much less than 9.25 pounds 

 of the digestible matter remains as the maintenance ration when 

 calculated on the basis of a weight of 1,100 pounds per horse. 



441. The German army horse. — The German army horse often 

 travels over 40 miles in a day, one-third of the distance being in 

 a walk, trot and gallop, respectively. This work means an ex- 

 penditure of energy amounting to not less than 23,748,000 foot- 

 povmds, or a feed requirement of 14.77 pounds of digestible matter, 

 including the food of support. The horses are fed on an average a 

 ration consisting of only 5.5 pounds of hay, 11 pounds of oats, 

 and some cut straw. This ration contains only about 8.8 pounds 

 of digestible components, and "it is therefore not hard to under- 

 stand why the horses lose heavily in weight during the maneuvers, 

 and that, when these are over, a large number of animals have to 

 be disposed of as not adapted for use in military service; they are 

 also unfit for almost any other work." 



III. The Investigations of Grandecm and Leclerc. 



442. Digestibility of horse feeds. — Grandeau and Leclerc » stud- 

 ied the digestibility of horse feeds and the relation of food to the 

 amount of work performed by the light draft horses of the Paris 



' Ann. de la Sol. Agron., 1884, Vol. II, p. 325, 



