44 
DOMESTIC! ANIMALS. 
A simple but invaluable appendage to the cart-stable is the nose-bay. 
In order that the lungs of the horse may have their full play, and espe- 
cially that the speed of the horse may not be impeded, an exceedingly 
small stomach was given to him. It is, consequently, soon emptied of 
food, and hunger, and languor, and indisposition, and inability to work, 
speedily succeed. At length food is set before him ; he falls ravenously 
upon it ; he swallows it faster than his contracted stomach can digest 
it; the stomach becomes overloaded; he cannot, from the peculiar 
construction of that organ, get rid of the load by vomiting, and the 
stomach, or some of the vessels of the brain, becomes ruptured, and the 
animal dies. The farmer attributes this to an unknown or accidental 
cause, and dreams not that it is, in the great majority of cases, to be 
traced to voracious feeding after hard work and long fasting. The 
nose-bag is a simple but a kind contrivance, and an effectual preventive. 
No cart-horse on a journey of more than four or five hours, should be 
suffered to leave the farmer’s yard without it. 
A very slight inspection of the animal will always enable the owner 
to determine whether he is too well fed or not sufficiently fed. The 
size of the horse, and the nature of the work, and the season of the 
year, will make considerable difference in the quantity and the quality 
of the food. The following accounts will sufficiently elucidate the 
general custom : — “ Mr. Harper, of Bank Hall, Lancashire, plows seven 
acres per week, the year through, on strong land, with a team of three 
horses, and allows to each weekly two bushels of oats, with hay, during 
the winter six months, and, during the remainder of the year, one 
bushel of oats per week. Mr. Ellman, of Glynde, in Sussex, allows two 
bushels of oats, with pease-haulm or straw, with but very little hay, 
during the winter months. He gives one bushel of oats with green 
food during the summer.” There is very little difference in the man- 
agement of these two gentlemen, and that probably arising from cir- 
cumstances peculiar to their respective farms. The grand principles of 
feeding, with reference to agricultural horses, are, to keep the animal 
rather above his work, to give him good and wholesome food, and, by 
the use of the nose-bag or other means, never to let him work longer 
than the time already mentioned without being baited. 
The horse of quick work should be allowed as much as he will eat, 
care being taken that no more is put into the manger than he will 
readily dispose of; and that the grain be consumed before the hay is 
given; if the former be not eaten up with an appetite, it must be re- 
moved before the stable is shut up. The quantity actually eaten will 
depend on the degree of work and the natural appetite of the horse; 
but it may be averaged at about sixty-six pounds of chaff, seventeen 
pounds and a half of beans, and seventy-seven pounds of oats per week. 
The watering of the horse is a very important but disregarded portion 
of his general management. The kind of water has not been sufficiently 
considered. The difference between what is termed' hard and soft 
water is a circumstance of general observation. The former contains 
certain saline principles which decompose some bodies, as appears in 
the curdling of soap, and prevent the decomposition of others, as in the 
making of tea, the boiling of vegetables, and the process of brewing. It 
