MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG HORSES. 
83 
with which the individuals are nourished. I believe farmers 
would find it much to their advantage if they were to consider 
this subject with reference to feeding cattle and sheep, so that 
they might select those kinds of food which abound with 
properties more conducive to the production of flesh than 
fat. There is no kind of food which the horse consumes 
which has not a tendency to deposit some portion of fat. It 
is a substance which must exist to a certain extent ; but as it 
is muscular power, not a predisposition to adipose rotundity, 
which enhances the value of the animal, the reasons are 
obvious what guide should be taken in the selection of food. 
I have on a former occasion hinted the propriety of bruising 
the oats, and will now state my reasons for doing so. The 
first I will mention is economy. Three bushels of oats which 
have undergone that process are equivalent to four which 
have not, and the animals which consume them derive greater 
benefit. Various schemes are adopted to induce horses to 
masticate their corn, all of which are ineffectual. Scattering 
them thinly over the surface of a spacious manger, mixing a 
handful of cut hay or straw with each feed, and such like 
devices, will not cajole the animal to the performance of mas- 
tication. A horse that is disposed to bolt his corn, however 
carefully it may be spread along his manger, will soon learn 
to drive it into a heap with his nose, and collect as much 
with his lips as he thinks fit before he begins to masticate. 
Whatever food enters the stomach of any animal, and passes 
away in an undigested form, may be considered as so much 
dross or extraneous matter, which, not having afforded nutri- 
ment, is prejudicial to the creature which consumed it. A 
mistaken notion of economy is often the incentive to turning 
horses out in the summer, to be entirely dependent upon 
grass for their support. A few remarks will surely dispel 
that error. Twenty-two bushels of oats — allowing one bushel 
per week from the 15th of May to the 16 th of October — may 
be estimated as the produce of half an acre of land, and half 
a ton of hay that of another half-acre, although a ton and a- 
half per acre is not more than an average crop. It requires 
at least an acre of grass land to support a horse during the 
period above-named. 
Considering the important functions assigned to the legs 
and feet, upon which a great portion of the horse’s value 
depends, it is a matter of some surprise that more attention 
is not bestowed on the subject. There are many breeders 
who never think of inspecting them till the animals are 
about to be broken, or, if they observe any imperfections, 
they leave the remedy to its fate. The legs of young horses 
may be justly compared to willow twigs ; you may train them 
