Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-06-24
EooNomY IN FEEDING HORSES AND MULES.

When corn sells at dollar and quarter bush
ell planter he's Q pretty strong lnducement 10
study economy in feeding this gram 10 MS horses
and mulss. The writer has recently been expert
rneniine little in the way OF testing the reative
vaine of boiled and dry corn for the nonrishment
of WORKING horse. The result is gain by boil
inc VARYING from 20 to 25 per cent. We had rath-
or feed four bushels of soaked and partly cooked
corn than sc bushels Of the grain dry, particular
! 10 wbnr. one has very little hay or straw, blades
or other .roughness," to give with the corn
Its well worth while to heat water boiling hot
and nom, il over cnt feed and ground grain to facl-
itste tie extraction of their almentary properties
in the stomachs of working animals IL IS nos
enough to I'LL the digestive apparatus with coarse
go. or tbe Goods of cereals if we would secure
the heat atainable results for the food consumed.
II must BE- SO prepared as to yield up Its lie sus-
tsining virtues in a speedy and perfect manner.
AZ General thing, grain fed to horses Is quite I'M
perfectly dgested, so much so, indeed that not
few hogs and cows in and near villages and cities,
snhsist mainly on the dIoppings OF horses that
travel the streets.
Oyer 60 per cent. Of corn is starch, which IS
iusolutle in cold water, and not very soluble IN
juices of the stomach. by ooihng or Daking,
starch il Transformed into q kind of gum which
dissoIyes readily in water and is easy of digestion.
IF grain keeps up to anything like its present. mar
ket price it will soon be as common to take bread
for horses "a for men. Unlike the OK, the horse
has small single stomach; and there is not one
argument in favor of cooking food for persons that
does not apply to its equal preparation for horses
Scotch farmers have been some years IN the prac-
tice of baking bread for their plough teams when
hard at work 1t is soon eaten, agrees well with
the stomach and gives fatigued animal the maxi
mum of time to lie down a good bed and rest.
This kind Of feed, designed to make good blood,
and plenty of it. does not supercede the necessity
of cut hay, fodder, or straw, whose bulk IS impor-
tant for the due expansion and vigorous action OF
the digestive organs. ....
Our practice is to boil corn some three or tour
hours and salt it about as much asior hommlny or
bread 1t swells to twice its original volume,
which is no inconsidersble advantage. Horses fed
mostly on green rye, barley, corn, clover, or lu-
cerne do best when part of the water in such
succulen plants is dried out before they are eaten
Even cows giving milk like half cured new hay
better than perfectly green grass A young corn
Giant two feet or so in height has about 80 parts
of water in 100 of its stem and leaves. This fact
does not prevent its being nutritive at that early
stage of its growth, for it has very little wood or
woody fibres, which is indigestible. Dry mat;red
plants Weld their nutrient elements sparingy to
horses, So compared with oxen and other rumi-
nants.
To work poor mules, oxen, and horses, or waste
their expensive food, is bad economy and one was
to keep teams poor is to use dull worthless ploughs
and harrows, which require man and beast to 60
three times over field to effect degree oftlsge
which, with really good implements, might have
been better done at one ploughipg or narrowing.
Every step in agriculture ought TO tell; but it can
not, with bad tools and badly kept working cattle
and servants Southern EaltivatoT.