FEEDING FARM HORSES 145 
10. Balanced ration—It does not matter very much 
what kind of roughage is fed horses, providing the rough- 
age is well cured and free from dirt, and is wholesome. 
An important thing is to provide concentrates that will 
carry the nutrient or nutrients lacking in the roughage, 
but which are abundantly supplied in the concentrates. 
Thus, if legume hays are fed, the concentrates need not be 
high in protein, and if the roughage is of a carbonaceous 
nature, like timothy or corn stover, some concentrate like 
bran or oil meal should be introduced into the ration. 
11. Mettle of oats.—lIt 
was formerly thought that 
oats were indispensable for 
horses. There seems to be 
some constituent, of this 
grain that gives mettle and 
energy. For horses of the 
roadster type and_ those 
where qtick action is de- 
manded, oats should be, and 
no doubt will continue to be, 
a principal part of the ra- 
tion, but for farm work the 
value of oats perhaps has 
been overestimated. Many 
tests have been conducted 
in which various feeding Each pile contains the same amcunt 
stuffs have been compared, of digestible nutrients. 1. Corn. 2. 
Corn meal. 3. Oats. 4. Ground oats. 
and the oats theory has been 5. Corn and oats, half and half. 6. 
- Corn meal and ground oats, half and 
overthrown. Itis not so much half. 7. Corn meal, ground oats and 
- wheat bran, equal parts. 
the kind of concentrate, but 
rather that the grain portion shall contain the digestible 
nutrients in the best balance, and that they be of an 
easily digestible nature. 
BULK IN GRAIN RATION 
