ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FARM HORSE. 389 
portion is hurdled or fenced off. By some farmers the grass is cut 
and carted home to the paddock or stable. This latter plan is by 
far the most saving. Although a little more expense is incurred 
in the cutting and carting, from calculations I and others have 
made, we have proved that one acre of cut grass or vetches will go 
as far in providing food, when served out in the paddock, as two 
acres uncut into which the horse is turned to depasture. Cutting 
the green crops and house-feeding is attended with the manufacture 
of a vast quantity of manure, which would have been compara¬ 
tively lost, A single horse will in this way soil or saturate with 
his excretions from fifteen to twenty pounds weight of straw daily. 
Horses will eat more at the commencement, although the average 
consumption throughout the grass season will be from two cwt. to 
two and a half cwt. in the twenty-four hours for each horse. In 
heavy work or long journeys the horse fed on green meat will 
require a feed or two of cracked oats to maintain his condition; 
working hard and fed only on succulent food will soon reduce him, 
unless supplied with azotised matter or substances abounding with 
it. For lighter work green food may be sufficient. All horses, as 
I have before said, fed on bulbous roots in excess, or on succulent 
herbage alone, soonest perspire, are more liable to take cold, and 
their strength is not so lasting in heavy work. 
There are many, no doubt, favourable to the feeding of horses 
on bulbous roots and succulent herbage; but it is chiefly done by 
dealers or those who like to see their horses plump and glossy, and 
fit for exhibition more than for performing work. Frequent and 
serious losses occur to the farmer from turning his horses into 
strong, juicy, luxuriant herbage. Over anxious to feed on the 
refreshing morsel, they glut themselves; indigestion from engorge¬ 
ment ensues, and one or more of them are sometimes found dead on 
the spot. In many cases of this kind that have come under my 
cognizance, I have found the stomach ruptured. Before turning 
horses into rich herbage they should be gradually inured to it. 
Turning out the farm-horse to depasture during the summer is de¬ 
teriorating. As soon as the vetches or clover are ripe, the main¬ 
tenance of the farm-horse for summer feeding begins—about the 
middle of May or the early part of June—which will most seasons 
last until August; tares, lucerne, or the second clover crop, are then 
supplied on some farms for some weeks. Some farmers turn out 
their horses for a few weeks before the time of stabling again 
arrives, to eat up the eddish, or any rough forage that the farm 
affords. 
I will now endeavour to estimate the cost of a single horse 
during the five months he is in a paddock or shed fed on green 
meat. If he consumes, on the average, two cwt. to two and a half 
VOL. XXII. 3 F 
