280 
AMERICANS AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
Keeping One Horse. 
[SECOND PRIZE ESSAT. BY T. L. NEVILL, ST. JOHNS, 
NEWFOUNDLAND.] 
To keep a horse, so that lie may render the 
longest continued, and greatest amount of 
valuable service, it is essential that he should 
be provided with comfortable quarters. 
Several excellent barn-plans have recently 
appeared in the American Agriculturist, to 
which the reader is referred. An extended 
Fig. 1. —INTERIOR VIEW OF LOOSE BOX. 
description of one, and its essentials, would 
leave but little space for other important mat¬ 
ters of horse management. The stable must 
be dry, warm, light, and with good ventila¬ 
tion ; the latter to be managed on some plan 
that will not cause currents of air to pass 
over the inmate. A loose box is a great 
comfort to a horse. The name seems to 
frighten most people. So far from being some 
complex arrangement, only within reach of 
the wealthy, it is as simple as possible. A 
reasonably wide stall may be used as one: 
but a few inches more width is desirable, de¬ 
pending on the size of the animal. If hard- 
worked, a horse rests more completely in a 
loose box than in 
a stall, and, when 
idle, he can exer¬ 
cise himself in it 
sufficiently to pre¬ 
vent stiffness or 
swelling of the 
legs. Few stalls 
permit, and still 
fewer horses learn 
to indulge, while 
tied, in that posi¬ 
tion essential to 
complete repose. 
Probably four 
horses, stabled in 
loose boxes, will 
do the work of 
five kept in stalls, 
and therefore a 
single horse 
should be one- 
fiftli more effici¬ 
ent. The engrav¬ 
ings here given 
show a very con¬ 
venient loose box 
rthat has been in 
use for years. It 
will be noticed that the feed can be sup¬ 
plied from the outside. The door may 
be put in any convenient position. In the 
sketch it is, probably, in the worst possible 
one; but, at the end of a narrow shed as 
here, no other could be adopted without mak¬ 
ing the entrance directly from the outside. 
Fig.2. SIDE VIEW OF MANGER. 
Food—Buying and Feeding it. 
The American Agriculturist is circulated in 
so many and widely spread districts, each 
with specialties of its own in its productions, 
that it is difficult to give specific instructions 
as to the kinds of food to be used, and the 
best mode of purchasing; or, if they are 
given, they will suit but one locality. In 
most places hay, oats, and Indian corn will 
be the staples ; but corn meal, peas, barley, 
wheat or rye, or in fact any farinaceous food 
may be used. Bran, shorts, linseed meal, 
roots, and oaten fodder are useful for a vari¬ 
ety, or in sickness. In summer it is an ad-= 
vantage to be able to use some form of green 
fodder in place of, or as a substitute for, some 
portion of the hay. Cut grass, clover, green 
oats, vetches, lucern, all are useful and of 
wide spread production. 
Market facilities, a man’s means, or space 
for storage, will determine whether or no 
feed should be purchased in small quantities, 
from time to time as required, or in large ones 
sufficient for some months, or even a year’s 
supply. Whatever is used let it be sound 
and sweet. Do not let a low price tempt to 
the purchase of an inferior, musty food. 
Having secured a good article, store it prop¬ 
erly. Hay should be packed as closely as 
possible in the barn. If baled hay is used, a 
day’s supply should be shaken out loosely to 
recover its bulk 
before being fed. 
It is so compres¬ 
sed that, if used 
directly from the 
bundle, a ration 
of proper weight 
will not distend 
the bowels suf¬ 
ficiently to give a 
feeling of satis¬ 
fied appetite; that 
is, your horse will 
apparently want 
more. Grain 
should be bright, 
clean, plump, 
sweet, and heavy, 
and it is the better for not being new. New 
gram has a laxative effect, and the same is true 
of new hay. Whatever may be the quantities 
purchased, a rat and mice-proof place of stor¬ 
age is desirable ; but if this cannot be secur¬ 
ed, the more open the place in which grain is 
kept the better, as being within the reach of 
observation and cats. Rats do not like the 
light of day, nor like cats—particularly cats. 
Some divisions, or small bins, will be required 
in which to keep minor articles of feed. 
A horse of about 800 pounds weight, of av¬ 
erage appetite, and working daily, will re¬ 
quire, to keep him in condition, 14 pounds of 
grain, and 12 to 14 pounds of hay per diem ; 
or, if stabled all the year round, 170 bushels 
of oats (30 pounds per bushel), and 2 1 / 2 tons 
of hay per annum, or their equivalents in 
other articles of food. These are sufficient 
quantities in the hands of the owner, or those 
of that scarce article, a careful servant. In 
places where stocks cannot readily be replen¬ 
ished, it is not. safe to lay in the exact quan¬ 
tities, as some may accidentally be spoiled, or 
a harder day’s work than usual will require 
extra feed. Some horses, like some men, are 
heartier feeders than others, and really re¬ 
quire more than the theoretical average al¬ 
lowance to keep them in condition. The av¬ 
erage is correct among a number of animals ; 
Fig. 3. —GROUND PLAN OF 
THE STABLE. 
but for a “ one-horse ” arrangement it only 
gives an approximation, though a near one. 
If the animal powers be taxed to their ut¬ 
most capacity, they must be sustained by 
high feeding, and a horse’s stomach, or rather 
his powers of digestion, have then to be the 
measure of his feed. Grain is here intended. 
Any increase in the quantity of hay would 
be detrimental. The less of it that hard- 
driven horses get, the better, so long as they 
have enough to make that hulk of food which 
is so absolutely essential to health. 
A Variety in Food. 
An occasional change of food is beneficial. 
A bran-mash, given after a hard day, or on 
Saturday night, when the next day is to be 
one of rest, or easy work, helps to keep the 
bowels in order. Two gallons of bran, and 
half a gallon of Indian meal, scalded, and al¬ 
lowed to stand steaming (covered up) until 
cool enough to be eaten, will serve this pur¬ 
pose, and at the same time keep up the ani¬ 
mal’s strength. When used as feed, mashes 
should not be sloppy, but for sickness they 
should be so. Considerable judgment and 
care is required in substituting one kind of 
food for another. It must be done very grad¬ 
ually, or serious sickness may result. A full 
ration of wheat, for instance, given to a horse 
accustomed only to oats, would probably 
bring on a serious attack of colic. 
Grain should be fed by weight, one kind 
being so much heavier than another. A gal¬ 
lon of Indian corn weighs nearly twice as 
much as one of oats. It is more convenient 
to have measures of the proper capacity to 
contain a ration, than to weigh each one as 
required. Among English-speaking people 
the oat is regarded as the standard grain for 
horses, though Indian corn alone is used 
through extensive regions. In the East, bar¬ 
ley and chopped straw are the exclusive ar¬ 
ticles of food. Peas are useful as an adjunct 
to oats, in the proportion of 3 / 3 oats to */ 3 peas. 
The Carrot is the root for horses, as it ex¬ 
erts a beneficial action on their health, and 
may be given, cut in long slices, in rations of 
five or six pounds. Other roots, turnips, 
parsnips, ruta bagas, beets, mangolds, pota¬ 
toes, are all relished, and may be used occa¬ 
sionally with advantage. 
It is of very questionable benefit to turn a 
horse out to graze after his day’s work is 
over, and even sometimes an act of cruelty. 
It is so when a poor brute that has been forced 
to labor hard in our service all day, has to cut 
his own food through the night; and he is 
often obliged to do this on an indifferent pas¬ 
ture, at a time when he should be resting. 
The knowledge gained from over thirty 
years’ experience as an owner and user of 
horses, is, that grazing is altogether a mis¬ 
take for those at hard work, though it is an 
advantage to substitute some of the kinds of 
green fodder, previously mentioned, for the 
hay (or a portion of it), during a month or 
six weeks in summer. It is not intended to 
deny that very great benefit will most likely 
be derived by a sick or stale horse from a few 
weeks’ run, that implying complete idleness. 
If he gets about half his working allowance 
of grain, he will go to work again like a new 
animal, and be fit for it, too, as the grain 
keeps him in good, hard condition. 
It is decidedly an advantage to crush or 
crack all grain fed to animals, as a matter of 
economy, because, after the operation, the 
whole will be digested. If left to the teeth, 
some grains will escape mastication, and be 
