264 ARTICLES USED AS FOOD FOR THE HORSE. 
It is coarsely ground, and sprinkled over straw and clover chaff, 
previously wetted, by which means the whole mass is well incorpo¬ 
rated ; mastication also is so much assisted, that no part is wasted, 
and the condition of the carriers’ horses on the roads in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, where they are universally fed in this way, and are seldom 
lodged in a stable, proves the excellence of the practice. 
Rye is also used in Germany, but generally in the shape of 
bread, being made from the whole flour and bran : and it is not 
unusual, in travelling through some parts of that country, and of 
Holland, to see the postillions help themselves and their horses 
from the same loaf*.” 
Beans. —There are several varieties of the bean in use as 
horse-corn, but I do not know that one is better than another. 
The small plump bean is preferred to the large shrivelled kind. 
Whichever be used, the beans should be old, sweet, and sound. 
New beans are indigestible and flatulent; they produce colic and 
founder very readily. They should be at least a year old. Beans 
are often ill harvested ; and when musty or mouldy, though quite 
sweet internally, horses do not like them. They are often 
attacked by an insect which consumes much of the flour, and 
destroys the vitality of the rest. The ravages of the insects are 
plain enough. The bean is excavated, light, brittle, and bitter 
tasted. A few in this state may do no harm; but when the beans 
are generally infected, it is not likely that they are eaten with 
impunity, and very often the horse refuses them altogether. 
Damp, musty, ill-kept beans, though old, are as flatulent as 
those which are new. All kinds are constipating. 
Though in very general use for horses, beans are not so exten¬ 
sively employed as oats : according to the chemists, they contain 
much less nutriment; but in practice it is universally allowed that 
beans are much the strongest of the two. The comparison, how¬ 
ever, is almost always made in reference to a measured quantity. A 
bushel of beans is, beyond all doubt, more nutritious than a 
bushel of oats; but it is questionable whether a pound of beans 
is stronger than a pound of oats. Beans weigh about sixty-three 
pounds per bushel ; and if given in an oat measure, the horse 
may be getting nearly double allowance. This, I am persuaded, 
often happens; and hence arise those complaints about the 
heating, inflammatory nature of beans. The horse becomes 
plethoric ; the groom says the humours are flying about him. It 
is very likely that he would be in the very same state if he were 
getting an equal weight of oats. 
If beans do not afford more nutriment, weight for weight, than 
oats, they at least produce more lasting vigour. To use a com- 
* British Husbandry, vol. i, p. 146. 
