THE FEEDING OF HORSES 239 



they are crashed to prevent the forniation of paste in the mouth. 

 The market price of wheat, especially, allows of its being fed 

 only under unusual conditions. 



Other materials, the availahility of which is more or less 

 restricted, may prove worthy of a place in the horse's ration when 

 and where they can be secured at low cost. For example, one 

 enterprising Philadelphia city teamster met the high cost of 

 oats and corn, of recent years, by introducing a ration of mo- 

 lasses and stale bread, on which his horses did well. 



EOUGHAGE FOE IIOESES 



Timothy is in a class by itself as a roughage for horses, the 

 leafless nature of the plant insuring nearly perfect curing and 

 freedom from dust in the hay. In addition there is a constrin- 

 gent property in timothy by virtue of which horses filled up with 

 it keep hard and do not become washy on the road, as horses will 

 if fed on the hay from a legume or on fresh grass. The market 

 value of timothy hay is not in accordance with its chemical com- 

 position. The very feature which horsemen favor in it is cor- 

 related with a low coefficient of digestibility. As a means of 

 affording, in the ration, the bulk and volume necessary for a 

 physiological distention of the digestive tract, to maintain it 

 normally functional, timothy is ideal. Horses like it, if not too 

 ripe, but as a source of nutriment it is inferior to the hay of 

 clover, alfalfa, and other legimies. 



Legumes, with their extensive leaf surfaces, are much richer 

 in digestible nutrients but more difficult to properly cure. When 

 improperly cured they are unfit to be fed to horses. The causal 

 relation between clover hay and heaves has been fairly well 

 established. It is alleged not to be due to the dust, in general, 

 witli which clover hay is likely to be filled, but to a specific 

 fungus, the growth of which is peculiar to legiimes. It is true 

 that the history of most cases of heaves reveals clover hay in the 

 ration, although there is nothing remarkable about this, as the 

 majority of horses are so fed. On the whole, we cannot afford to 

 count clover-mixed hay out of the ration of the average horse. 

 But in view of the possibility that may result from feeding it, 

 we should consider carefully the quality, and guard the quan- 



