178 
MISCELLANEA. 
computation, 30,000 quarters of oats daily. This large quantity 
would supply three millions of our fellow-creatures, with a 
wholesome dinner of oatmeal. Fourteen pounds of oats will 
yield eight pounds of that kind of meal which the Scotch and 
Lancashire folk are glad to live upon. Who would wish to put 
even a horse upon a poorer or ‘ coarser diet/ as the phrase goes, 
if there were not a need’s be ? But we have in hand at this 
time an immense stock of hay of the most excellent quality, and 
which is at a low price, owing to the abundant crops of the two 
last seasons. Seriously, we should make the best use of this pro- 
vidential gift. If the human kind could eat hay, there would now 
be no famine in the land ; but as this is not the case, let an order 
immediately issue from the Horse Guards to substitute hay, the 
natural provender of the horse, for corn, the proper food of man *. 
In these piping times of peace, what exertions are required of our 
cavalry, that their animals should be feeding upon the bread 
of the people ? T would suggest also to the brewers in Lon- 
don, who are encouraged by act of parliament to dismiss the 
malt from their breweries and use sugar instead, to dismiss also 
the corn from their stables. As to those plethoric beasts which 
crawl in front of their drays, and live upon the fat of the land, their 
sleek appearance is but an ill-timed mockery of the gaunt 
misery visible upon the outward man in our streets. The racing 
studs, too, of England, consisting of 1000 horses or more, which 
are most wastefully fed out of the grooms' hands ! might be made 
to eat their food out of the manger ; and if they were stinted a 
little, or even the total abstinence pledge were enforced upon them, 
while it would be fair alike for all at the running-time, it would cer- 
tainly be much better for poor human creatures. The agricultural 
horses, except in the more favoured districts of the country, work 
hard upon no corn ; and, really, if a good example were set, as it 
ought to be, by the high-bred ones, of eating only hay, this custom, 
universally adopted, would confer a great boon upon the starving 
people.” 
%* The above is a very proper and timely suggestion, though, 
as it would seem, coming from a person who is more of a states- 
man than of a horseman. Horses used for the purposes of slow 
draft — such as farmers’ and brewers’ and coal-merchants’ horses — 
might do very well without corn or pulse ; but racers and hunters, 
and hard or fast worked riding and driving horses, will require 
either one or the other : still, it behoves all horse-owners to assist 
* An order has been issued from the Horse Guards, reducing the daily 
allowance of oats to every cavalry horse from 10 lbs. to 7 lbs.. 
