44 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  8,  1903. 
horses  look  better,  well  groomed,  and  well  exercised  ;  but 
the  day  of  reckoning  came,  as  it  does  always  sooner  or 
later,  and  by-and-by,  when  travelling  time  came,  legs 
failed,  and  there  were  constantly  breakdowns.  What  is  the 
use  of  a  good  top  if  the  legs  won’t  carry  if?  The  Scotch¬ 
man  left  us  for  the  States,  and  an  entirely  new  system 
of  feeding  obtained.  Everything,  roots  of  all  kinds,  were 
boiled  and  steamed.  The  food  was  administered  hot,  and 
the  horses  were  sleeker  than  ever.  Now  no  fever  in  feet 
or  legs,  but  a.  worse  evil  befel.  There  were  constantly  cases 
of  influenza  ;  both  the  common  sort';  not  worse  than  a  bad 
cold,  then  the  complicated  edition,  often  followed  by  con¬ 
gestion,  and  sometimes  by  pneumonia.  The  least  exposure 
or  over-exertion  had  to  be  guarded  against,  and  this,  for 
horses  intended  as  the  sires  of  hard-worked  draught  horses, 
was  not  at  all  as  it  should  be.  A  judicious  blend  of  the 
com  and  root  business  would  hit  the  happy  mean ; 
either  extreme  is  fatal. 
If  stock,  when  in  health,  are  often  carelessly  or  im¬ 
properly  fed,  what  about  stock  when  ailing?  We  all  know 
how,  in  case  of  sickness,  the  appetite  is  fretful  and  capri¬ 
cious,  and  yet  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  food 
should  be  taken.  It  is  not  enough  to  put  a  meal  before 
a  sick  animal ;  it  must  be  a  meal  of  suitable  nature,  and  if 
one  thing  does  not  tempt,  something  else  must  be  tried.  If 
the  food  is  not  eaten  up  at  once,  it  won’t  be.  Horses  in 
particular  will  not  look  at  anything  that  has  been  before 
them  some  time.  They  are  funny  things,  and  very  human 
in  their  likes  and  dislikes. 
Of  all  foods  used  for  invalids,  perhaps  there  is  not  one 
more  general  than  a  bran  mash,  and  very  wholesome  a  food 
it  is  properly  made  and  freshly  served.  Properly  made,  not 
with  warm  or  lukewarm  water,  but  with  water  at  boiling 
point ;  that  makes  a  material  difference.  Mind,  no  animal 
can  take  it  at  that  temperature,  but  by  covering  the  vessel 
up  so  that  the  steam  does  not  escape,  you  improve  the 
mixture,  and  then  give  it  when  new-milk-warm.  Not  too 
much  at  a  time,  please,  and  if  the  horse  refuses  it,  and  be 
suflering  from  any  cold  or  cough,  or  form  of  influenza, 
don’t  on  removal  offer  it  to  other  stock.  The  fact  that  it 
has  been  breathed  over,  or  subjected  to  any  droppings 
from  nostril  or  mouth,  will  render  it  a  fine  medium  of  in¬ 
fection.  Sometimes  the  manger,  if  it  be  a  wooden  one,  has 
got  sour  and  unpleasant  by  constantly  holding  mashes  or 
other  wet  foods.  We  should  not  like  the  same  unwashed 
plate  meal  after  meal.  Oatmeal  gruel  is  very  acceptable 
sometimes,  and  will  create,  as  well  as  appease,  an  appetite  ; 
but  neither  men  nor  horses  like  this  food  “  bishopped,”  and 
it  will  “  bishop  ”  in  an  old  pan  before  you  can  say  “  knife.” 
We  want  a  long  paragraph  to  sing  the  praises  of  linseed 
gruel  or  tea,  whatever  you  like  to  call  it,  and  on  a  farm  it 
is  constantly  in  demand.  Oftenest  it  is  made  from 
crushed  cake.  Of  course,  this  preparation  is  not  so  rich  in 
oil  as  that  made  from  the  whole  or  crushed  seed.  Its  use 
will  come  under  two  heads;  wonderfully  soothing  in  all 
affections  of  the  respiratory  organs,  and  wonderfully  cool¬ 
ing,  as  well  as  nourishing  to  the  system,  when  it  has  been 
once  loaded  by  a  long  course  of  dry  corn.  A  gentle  laxa¬ 
tive  which  leaves  no  ill  effects.  As  careless,  stupid  cooks 
usually  over-thicken  gravies  and  sauces,  so  the  amateur 
generally  stints  his  water  in  proportion  to  his  linseed.  He 
forgets  it  swells  and  soon  forms  a  thick  glutinous  mass,  not 
attractive  to  anybody  or  anything,  and  linseed,  too,  like 
oatmeal,  is  easily  burnt  to  the  bottom  of  the  pan. 
A  well-known  authority  prescribes  half  a  pound  of  lin¬ 
seed  to  a  gallon  of  water,  and  as  the  Scottish  way  of 
making  porridge  is  to  bring  the  water  to  a  boil,  and  then 
cast  in  the  meal  by  handfuls,  so  this  is  far  the  best  way  to 
do  with  linseed.  With  anything  like  attention  it  is  far  less 
apt  to  stick  and  burn  so  treated.  If  this  is  intended  as  a 
drink,  the  seeds  may  be  strained  out,  and  afterwards  mixed 
with  mash  or  meal. 
In  some  stables  linseed  is  always  kept  in  soak,  and  a 
“  drink  ”  of  this  is  given  occasionally.  We  are  great  advo¬ 
cates  for  this  system,  provided  the  mixture  is  not  allowed 
to  turn  sour.  Many  a  horse  will  pick  at  a  nice  fresh  carrot 
when  off  its  feed,  say  from  over-exertion  or  a  passing  ail¬ 
ment.  We  wish  all  the  oats  given  to  horses  were  what  they 
seem.  Can  oats  be  adulterated?  you  ask.  Well,  not 
exactly  that,  but  there  are  various  qualities,  and  the  best 
are  not  generally  kept  for  home  consumption.  Oats  are 
often  harv'ested  last  of  all  crops,  and  stand  out  to  be 
thoroughly  weathered  and  often  spoiled.  In  the  best 
sample  there  is  but  a  small  grain  in  proportion  to  the 
husk,  and  what  of  the  indifferent  sarhples  ?  Horses,  too, 
suffer  from  their  teeth,  and  it  must  be  a  wonderful  relief  to 
them  in  such  cases  to  find  their  corn  crushed,  bruised,  or 
ground,  or  even  steamed. 
Some  of  our  remarks  about  Oats  and  their  indifferent 
quality  will  equally  apply  to  hay.  All  is  not  nutritious  that 
is  made,  and  when  the  quantity  taken  is  but  small,  that 
quantity  should  be  of  the  best.  There  is,  too,  extract  of 
hay  (not  the  scent,  but  the  tea),  and  a  nice  change  it  is  for 
the  sick  equine.  See  that  the  water  boils,  is  the  formula 
to  be  observed.  A  little  malt,  a  little  boiled  barley,  a 
little  fresh  grass  or  green  meat  of  some  sort,  will  often  be 
taken  when  the  appetite  is  variable  and  mostly  bad.  Variety 
is  the  watchword  ;  wholesome  variety,  and  a  very  little  at  a 
time. 
One  last  word  about  poultry  feeding,  and  we  have  done. 
All  admit  that  a  hot  meal  is  the  proper  thing  for  breakfast. 
It  usually  takes  the  form  of  paste  of  some  sort ;  that  is, 
floury  meal  very  imperfectly  blended  with  boiling  water. 
Some  of  it  is  far  too  wet,  other  too  dry,  and  a  large  propor¬ 
tion  of  the  feed  thus  wasted.  Ducks  can  spoon  up  slops, 
not  fowls,  and  no  bird  can  manage  the  dry  meat.  When, 
too,  this  mixture,  if  so  we  may  call  it,  is  often  only  spread 
on  the  ground,  or  in  low  shallow  pans,  where  as  much  is 
trodden  under  foot  and  dirtied  as  would  make  a  really 
good  meal  for  many  fowls.  There  is  no  implement  that 
will  mix  up  the  food  so  well  as  the  hand  ;  but  the  hand 
does  not  like  boiling  water.  The  paste  should  be  such  as 
would  easily  be  rolled  into  pills,  dry  and  clean  and  friable. 
With  food  of  this  sort  there  would  be  little  or  no  waste, 
especially  if  placed  in  troughs  into  which  the  fowls  could 
not  get  themselves ;  troughs  tarred  over  at  frequent  in¬ 
tervals. 
Just  back  to  the  horses  a  minute.  We  wonder  how 
many  of  our  readers  fully  appreciate  the  harm  done  to 
horses  by  the  use  of  dusty,  fusty,  hay  '2  Many  a  horse  has 
gone  “  wrong  in  his  wind  ”  through  nothing  else,  and  where 
a  horse  is  “  \\Tong  in  his  wind  ”  it  is  well  to  avoid  the  use  of^ 
hay  at  all ;  it  only  aggravates  the  trouble,  and  by  judicious 
care  a  horse  \<'ith  “bellows  to  mend”  may  be  kept  on  the 
go  a  long  time. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
The  closing  days  of  1902  have  been  remarkable  for  their  mild¬ 
ness,  and  for  a  gale,  which  did  sore  damage  in  the  stackyards. 
It  has  taught  many  farmers  a  lesson  on  careless  thatching.  The 
stacks  which  were  exposed  to  the  w'est  stood  fairly  well,  for 
the  good  reason  that  special  care  had  been  given  to  making 
them  stormproof.  Those  which  were  more  sheltered  were  in 
ihany  cases  entirely  unroofed,  the  corn  being  blown  all  over 
the  adjoining  fields.  Fortunately,  there  was  no  rain  before  it 
was  possible  to  repair  the  damage,  for  a  heavy  dow'iipour  must 
have  been  most  serious  when  so  much  good  grain  lay  exposed. 
In  one  yard  we  saw,  which  contained  many  long  and  very 
narrow  stacks  of  Barley  and  Oats,  the  wdiole  were  almost  levelled, 
being  left  like  the  undulations  of  the  prairie.  Whether  it  has 
been  possible  to  make  it  rainproof  again  we  do  not  know.  Our 
own  suggestion  was  the  introduction  of  a  threshing  set  and  to 
restack  the  straw'  after  removing  the  corn.  Perhaps  there  will 
be  a  good  number  of  unroofed  stacks  threshed  prematurely. 
It  will  be  a  pity  if  it  is  so,  for  markets  are  not  very  firm, 
though  the  downward  tendency  of  early  December  has  been 
checked.  .  The  reason  why  stack  roofs  do  not  withstand  storms 
as  well  as  they  once  did  is  to  be  found  probably  in  the  increasing 
scarcity  of  skilled  thatchers.  On  many  farms  there  is  not  one 
man  wdio  is  capable  of  fastening  thatch  so  as  to  withstand  a 
really  heavy  gale.  When  one  stack  is  unroofed  and  another 
untouched  in  a  more  exposed  situation,  there  must  have  been 
a  great  difference  in  the  thatching.  Just  after  harvest  an  old 
hand,  and  a  skilled  one,  told  us  that  he  had  been  thatching 
at  4d.,  Id.,  and  l^d.  per  square  yard.  He  showed  us  a  l^d.  stack, 
w  ith. pardonable  pride.  On  being  asked  what  ^d.  w'ork  was  like, 
he  said  “Well!  it’s  thatched!”  It  is  to  be- hoped  those  stacks 
have  been  thrashed. 
The  open  weather  has  been  favourable  for  sheep ;  the  lair 
is  good,  and  they  are  doing  very  well.  The  earlier  Turnips  are 
lasting  too  long  and  losing  their  quality ;  they  are,  many  of 
them,  too  big  for  due  solidity.  Notwithstanding  a  free  use  for 
the  cattle,  there  is  a  steady  increase  in  the  visible  supply  per 
head...  per  week  up  to  April.  The  men  are  occupied  in  laying 
some  "old  hedges,  but  employment  for  the  horses  is  rather 
scarce.  We  should  like  to  be  getting  on  with  Potato  delivery, 
but  our  purchasers  are  shy  at  ordering  away.  There  is  a  fair 
trade  in  the  big  markets,  so  they  must  be  waiting  for  a  bigger 
profit.  We  shall  not  be  wanting  to  sort  and  deliver  Potatoes 
when  the  land  is  ready  for  Barley  sowing. 
