The North-Carolinian., 1855-12-01

The editor of the Michigan Farmer has been
experimenting aud cob meal as horses
feed. for a couple Of months feeding, febrile
symptoms were occasionally observed in ono of
the horses, such as short and quick breathing,
&c. On stating the case to DR. Dadd, the
celebrated veterinary surgeon of Boston, it
elected the following valuable letter The inn
portance of occasional change Of food, which
it recommends, is not sufficiently attended to
by the farmers in feeding their stock.
"As regards your horse, (if he is better,) I
would change the diet Immediately. He is
probably suffering from acute perhaps chronic
Indigestion, which is very apt to occur in a"i-
mails when kept too long on ono kind of diet.
No fact in dietetics is better established than
that of the impossibity of long sustaining
health or even life on one kind of diet. 1t fails
to support nutrition.
''The animals experimental upon, after
certain length of time, seemed willing to endure
starvation rather than live ono kind Of diet.
AS regards the adult horse, however, he will
exist for time Oh highly nutritious articles
such as oats, hary, corn, &c. They do not
require much of the fes!'-making principle
| the young and growing animal, which not only
| requires sufficient but carbon in the form of
food to rcnovate the tissues, but also enough
for growth and development -~~~--*~
1.-The adult, however, requires; greater va
ricty of food than the latter to support the
integrity Of his organization; consequently, as
you have fed your horse on corn and cob meal
all winter, there may be dsproportion between
the amount of carbon lin the form of food)
and tho oxygen rcspired, hence his digestion
mus: be deranged, carbon Gn the form. of
fat) is deposited in the various tissues. a fat
horse, Of course yon are aware, is not the ono
! for fast work nor fatieue, and, the emaciatcd
excepted, is more likely to become sick from
the least exciting cause. On the other hand
an excess of carbonnccous material deranging
. thn ctomach-It hOlfiinr thetlc relation
with the brain--is apt to terminate in stag
gers, &c. fss eeedf-Ffae ~
at should be known to horscmen that an
adult horse ought not to Increase in weight
from year to year; the food may be proportion
ed to work:. Gnv increase III flesh or fat is a
signal to dip lighter hand into the meal bag
that is, If Won want to keep disease and death
at bav. 1t pays t~fatten cattle, sheep anu
swine, because the result is dollars and cents;
bnt you may depend that it is a losing spec to
fattcn horses; for among such have the most
practice, their disease being more difficult to
control than when occurring in Others, in fair
working order. As regards corn and cob meal
think it operates injnriously on great many
horses In the first place, they do not always
masticate it properly; il being soft and easily
sa!ivated, they kept to bolt it, as the saying
is. In order to obviate the difficulty, the meal
ought to he mixed with cut hay or straw, ar
ticies that must be masticated ere swallowed.
Should the digestives organs be deranged, meal
ferments very rapidly, inducing latnlency.t II
81 should not object to giving a horse a feed
of corn and cob meal occasionally, mixing with
cut hay and little salt. Salt is good an
tiseptic; and prevents fermentation; affords, by
the decomposition in the stomach. muriatic acid
and soda; aids digestion aud prevents the gene
ration of worms. The best remedies for restor-
ing digestive functions ale: Powdered salt. 3
ounces; powered ginger, 4 ounce, powdered
charcoal, onnce Mix, divide into eight parts,
and give one will, the food night and morning.
- Hestern 4gricuhurist.