Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-08-11
farmer's department.
Corn and Cob Meal for horses.

One of the editors of the Michigan Farmer
has been experimenting on corn and cob meal,
as horse feed, for couple of months exclusively,
and with the following results. After one
months feeding, fcbrile symptoms were occa-
si0nally observed in one of the horses, such as
short and quick breathing &c.
On stating the case to DR.. Dadd, the skill
full veterinary surgeon of Boston, it elected the
following valuable letter The Importance of
occasional change OF food which it recommends,
is not sufficiently attended to by our farmers In
feeding their stock.
AS regards your horse, l would (if he is
no better change the diet Immediately. He
is probably suffering from acute, or perhaps
caronic indigestion, which is very apt to occur
in animals when kept too long on one kind of
diet.
No fact in dietics is better established
than that of the impossbIity of long sustain
ing health, or even life on one kind of diet
1t fails to support nutrition (See Liebig and
Carpenter The animals experimental upon,
after certain length of time seemed willing
to endure starvation rather than live on one
kind Of diet, As regards the adult horse,
however he will exist for some time on highly
nutritious articles, such as oats, barley, corn
meal, &c, but they finally induce fcbrile
diseases such as taminitis Inflammation of the
foot rheumatism founders &c They do not
require so much Of tie fesh-marking principle
as the young and growing animal, which not
only requires sufficient carbon in the form of
food to remove the tissues but also enough for
growth and development. ~.
The adult, however, requires greater rarieiy
of food than the latter, to support the integrity
of his organization, consequently as you have
fed your horse on corN and cob meal aH ociRter,
there may be diSprOportion between the
amount of carbon (in the form of food and
the oxygen respred, hence his digestion must
be deranged, or carbon in the form Of fat, is
deposited in the various tissues
\ fat horse, of course you are aware, is not
the one for fast work nor fatigue, and, the
emaciated excepted, is more likely to become
sick, from the least exciting cause
On the other hand, an excess of carbonace-
Gus material deranging the stomach-it hold
ing sympathetic relation with the brain-is
apt to terminate in Staggers, &c. 1t should
be known to horsemen that an adult horse
ought not to increase in weight from year to
year the food may be proportioned to work,
any increase of fesh or fat, is signal to dip
lighter hand into the meal bag that is, if
.Ou NdHl w htt) ulStdSt anu ucdlH 1T DdN.
1t pays to fatten cattle, sheep and suine be-
cause the result, is dollars and cents, but Won
may depend that it is losing spec to fatten
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, I think it
operates injuriously on great many horses.
In the first place they DO not always masti-
cate it properly, it being soft and easily in
salivated, they are apt to boh it, as the saying
is, it then runs into fermentation, resulting in
fatulent or Spasmodc cholic.
In order to obviate the difficulty, the meal
ought to be mixed with cut hay or straw,
articles that must be maSticated ere swallowed
Should the digestive organs be deranged, meal
ferments very rapidly, inducing hatulency.
shold not object to giving horse feed
of corn and cob meal occasionally, mixing it
with cut hay and little salt. Salt is good
antiSeptic-prevents fermentation affords by
the decomposition in the stomace muriatc acid
and soda aids digestion and prevents the
generation of worms