Investiffoiions Concerning the Horse. 285 



nutritive condition of tlie horse or in its capacity for work in favor 

 of beans. The main difference in the rations is in the greater 

 protein content of the bean ration, the quantity of carbohydrates 

 being practically the same in both cases. 



The conclusion drawn, therefore, is that a very narrow nutritive 

 ratio is not advantageous, but that experience must still decide 

 how far the ration may be profitably widened. The author believes 

 that 1: 7 is about a correct nutritive ratio for the utilization of all 

 components of the ration for the work horse. (434) 



446. Feed required for performing work. — Grandeau's re- 

 searches 1 do not furnish much information as to the quantity of 

 feed reqiiired for the performance of known amounts of work, for 

 although graduated amounts of measured work were performed 

 by the horses under each diet, it was rare that the ration proved 

 exactly sufficient for maintaining the horses' weight without gain 

 or loss. Some points of importance were, however, clearly made 

 out. One of these is the effect of pace on the amount of labor 

 exerted and the feed required therefor. Thus, a horse walking 

 12.5 miles per day was kept in condition with a daily ration of 

 19.4 pounds of hay, while one of 24 pounds was insufficient when 

 the same distance was covered at a trot. Again, a horse walking 

 the above distance and harding a load, the additional work being 

 equivalent to 1,943 foot- tons, was sufficiently nourished by a 

 ration of 26.4 pounds of hay, but one of 32.6 pounds (all the 

 horse would eat) was not enough to maintain its weight when the 

 same work was done at a trot. That work is performed at least 

 cost to the system when done slowly is a fact well recognized by 

 every old and feeble man, but the principle has not generally 

 been recognized as true in all cases. 



Some of the reasons why rapid labor is less economically per- 

 formed than slow labor are readily apparent. "When a horse is 

 trotting, the frequency of the pulse, and consequently the work 

 performed by the heart, is much increased. The trotting or gal- 

 loping horse lifts his own weight at each step, but allows it to 

 fall again, the result appearing only as heat. The temperature 

 of the horse rises with exertion, and much heat is lost by the 



1 After Warington, loc. cit. 



