On Mismanagement of Farm-Horses. 



515 



suitable during the spring- months, and when the work is pretty 

 severe, may consist daily of the foUowing proportions of oats, hay, 

 and roots, viz. from 10 to 13 lbs. of oats, at 40 lbs. weight per 

 bushel; 14 lbs. of hay, and about 40 lbs. of steamed turnips or 

 potatoes. The oats should be bruised, and are most economically 

 given at two different times — one half in the morning and the 

 other half about noon. It contributes much to the condition of 

 horses to give them a small quantity of beans along with, or in- 

 stead of, a part of their oats. Hay and other fodder should always 

 be given cut ; for, by such preparation, it is more easily masti- 

 cated and digested, and the animal is thus allowed more time for 

 rest. In some parts of the country cut straw is substituted for 

 hay, especially during autumn and the early part of the winter, 

 but such a substitution diminishes the nutritiveness of the diet. 

 The boiled or steamed food is useful for keeping the bowels in 

 good order. It should be mixed with chaff, chopped straw, or 

 meal-seeds, and with a handful of common salt ; and part should 

 be given when the horse returns from work in the evening, and 

 the remainder an hour or two after. 



(c) Food, besides being insufficient in absolute quantity, is 

 often insufficient from containing an inadequate supply of nutri- 

 tive materials. To be nutritive, food must be capable of forming 

 healthy blood, and of building up the various animal tissues. All 

 varieties of food have been divided by Liebig into two great classes 

 — the plastic elements of nutrition^ and the elements of respiration. 

 The former class includes substances such as animal and vegetable 

 fibrine, albumen, and casein — the latter, substances such as starch, 

 gum, sugar, and fat. All articles of the former class contain 

 nitrogen or azote, and are hence termed nitrogenous or azotized 

 substances. On the other hand, the articles of the latter class 

 contain no nitrogen, but are rich in carbon, which is often united 

 with the elements of water ; and hence they are termed non-nitro- 

 genous, non-azotized, carboniferous, or hydrocarbons. Substances 

 of these two different classes are applied in the animal body to 

 very different purposes. The azotized principles are employed 

 for repairing the waste, and adding to the bulk of the muscles and 

 all the more highly organized tissues — they are the flesh-produc- 

 ing principles. The non-azotized articles of food are consumed 

 in all parts of the body to support the animal heat ; they are 

 burned, or enter into chemical union with the oxygen which 

 enters the blood at every inspiration — they cannot form blood or 

 flesh. 



Every natural system of diet, and every system adequate to 

 support life, contains representatives of each of these two classes. 

 In milk, the azotized principles are represented by the casein, and 

 the non-azotized by the saccharine and oily matters ; and so also 



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