EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
231 
fill his mouth as to make it impossible for him to masticate 
properly. The animal will, therefore, either drop some of 
the corn from his mouth, or he will bolt it. In many instances 
cut hay will prevent this by obliging a horse to chew his 
food ; but even this we have known to fail with some horses, 
who acquire a habit of selecting the oats and leaving the chaff 
at the bottom of the manger. 
Unquestionably it is indispensable with the horse, as with 
other animals, that his food should have a sufficient quantity 
of saliva mixed wfith it during the process of mastication to 
enable perfect digestion to take place. If this can be promoted 
by mechanical contrivances, and which, we think, by the 
operation of this manger, which only allows of a very small 
quantity of oats to be before the horse at a time, it can, a 
desideratum is obtained. Cut hay is often insufficient, as we 
have said, for this purpose, and so also are bruised oats. 
We confess that this subject of feeding has always been a 
difficult one to manage practically, but we do think that 
the so-called “ self-supplying manger” at least prevents, 
by a simple contrivance, many of the evils attendant on the 
ordinary plan. It restrains a ravenous, while it provokes the 
appetite of a delicate feeder, and is at the same time a certain 
preventive of waste. In fact, it is surprising that nothing of 
the kind has ever been introduced to public notice before, but 
“ better late than never;” and now that the proprietors of 
horses have the opportunity presented to them, we hope they 
will not fail to make use of it. 
The feeding sieve, we presume, is more intended to serve 
the manger, than to present any great novelty of design, 
which, however, it is not altogether deficient in. 
Space fails us to describe more minutely, even the leading 
features of this invention. We, therefore, in conclusion, beg 
to direct our readers 5 attention to our advertising columns, 
where they will find a sketch of these fittings, with an ex- 
planation attached, and we doubt not that any further 
description they may require will be cheerfully given by 
Messrs. Ransome and Sims. 
