MIXED FOOD FOR STOCK. 
be put up. The manger should be strong and firm, 
and the ring well fastened. 
The horse should never be tied to the ring or to 
the manger by the halter-stale. A weight with a 
hole in it, or a ring fastened to it, should be in 
every manger. The halter-stale should be passed 
through the hole in the manger, or the ring on it, or 
at the head of the stall in the wall, and fastened to 
the weight. The halter-stale should be so long as 
to allow the weight to rest on the manger bottom, 
when the horse’s head is to the manger, and 
the weight is only to be raised when he turns to 
look or step back. A halter-stale fastened to a 
weight will rarely ever be broken: and accidents 
from halter casting will be equally rare. Some 
horses are fond of standing back in the stalls; this 
the weight will prevent; some must be tied short, 
and the weight makes a short tie; some need a long 
halter-stale and a long tie ; this the weight will per¬ 
mit. It will be short when needed and long when 
needed, and cannot be got under foot, as the weight 
.descends when the horse slackens the pull; when 
Ihe needs more length he gets it, by pulling the hal¬ 
ter and raising the weight. Care should be taken 
to prevent the w T eight pulling on the head when the 
horse lies down, as he may not rest well if he has 
to support a weight. 
Sometimes even with weights, horses will get 
halter cast. To obviate this, a contrivance of 
which we give a cut, 
has been adopted. An 
iron ring is attached to a 
bolt; this bolt slides 
into a socket of iron, 
and is kept in place by 
a spring. This socket 
is fastened to the manger 
or the head of the stall 
in the wall, having its 
open end down. It the 
ring be pulled upwards 
or backwards in the 
stall, the ring and bolt 
remain fast; but if pull¬ 
ed downward, the bolt is 
Fig I. drawn and the horse set 
tree. This socket should be set into the wall, and 
the halter-stale passed through a ring or hole in the 
front edge of the manger. If the horse get halter 
caught or cast, the bolt will come away and the leg 
f e free, and yet the horse will be held by the ring 
on the manger; with this fixture the horse cannot 
get cast or thrown down, though he may get a leg 
over the halter-stale. Some security against halter 
casting should be adopted in all stables, and more 
especially with valuable horses. For the want of 
something of the kind, occasionally a fine horse is 
lamed, or ruined, or even killed. 
Few persons keeping horses are aware of the 
cruelty they constantly practise, and we are sure 
that the benevolent and just will remedy all the 
evils which may be pointed out. A little expendi¬ 
ture, beyond that made for the ordinary arrange¬ 
ments, will repay itself over and over, during the 
lives of the horses used, in increased power to 
labor, and in the greater length of life. Thus both 
economy and humanity will be consulted. 
In our next we shall treat of stable floors. 
MIXED FOOD FOR STOCK. 
Wherever the science of feeding is correctly 
understood, a mixture of food is given to domestic 
animals. There is thrift, health, and comfort to 
the stock in this practice, and economy and general 
advantage to the owner. Good hay is undoubtedly 
one of the best and most economical kinds of food 
in this country, as it contains the different elements 
of nutrition in nearly the proportions required; and 
when land is cheap and labor comparatively dear, 
and especially where the soil is adapted to it, grass 
is, perhaps, the most economical food for general 
use. But there are many exceptions to this rule. 
Working horses and oxen require something in ad¬ 
dition to hay—something containing more nourish¬ 
ment in a smaller compass, and admitting of more 
rapid digestion. When this is the case, the most 
economical food consists of cut hay, straw, or chaff, 
and meal, or roots cut and mixed with the hay or 
straw; and this is given much more economically, 
when wet up for a day or two beforehand, and al¬ 
lowed partially to ferment. Straw and grain, 
especially if the latter be ground, are entirely ade¬ 
quate to answer all the requirements of working 
animals. Grain alone is not sufficient for this. It 
is too much condensed, and other coarser food is 
requisite to distend the stomach, and preserve its 
healthy action. Straw is found to answer an ex¬ 
cellent purpose for this object, and it, moreover, 
contains the phosphates in large proportions, which 
are essential to supply the osseous materials for the 
wasting of the bones. 
There is great saving in the cutting of the hay, 
or straw, in two ways. The animals do not waste 
it by dragging it out of their mangers, and tram¬ 
pling it under their feet, and time and labor are saved 
them in masticating it. They obtain their supply 
of food readily, and then lie down to digest it 
Fermentation also developes the nutritive matter 
and leaves much less work for the stomach to per¬ 
form, and this, by saving muscular exertion, leaves 
more strength with the animal to be expended on 
his ordinary work. The same principle holds with 
milk cows, sheep, swine and even poultry. If the 
food be given to them in a form more easily adopt¬ 
ed to assimilation in the animal system, the greater 
product of milk, wool, flesh, &c., they can yield 
from the same quantity. Cutting, bruising, grind¬ 
ing, fermenting, and cooking the food, all tend much 
to fit it for easy and rapid digestion, and whenever 
it can be thus prepared without too much expendi¬ 
ture of labor, it should be done. 
By adopting a mixed food, much of the coarsei 
products of the farm can be worked up, which are 
now suffered to be added to the manure heap. In 
deed, scarcely any of the vegetable productions of 
the farm need be suffered to run to waste, till they 
have first contributed all the nutriment they contain 
to the support of animal life. It is true, by mixing 
them with manure, they afford whatever value they 
have to the next crop when incorporated with the 
soil. But what can be more absurd, than again 
to undergo the labor of raising for the use of the 
stock, what you have already secured ? Straw and 
hay are frequently useful for retaining the valuable 
portions of the manure, which, from the defective 
system of saving it, would otherwise be wasted; 
and when this is the case, they are valuable for 
