Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-01-18
CORN AND COB MEAL FOR HORSES.


The editor of the Michigan Farmer has
been experimenting on corn and cob meal
as horse feed for couple of months ex-
elusively, and with the following results.
After one months feeding, febrile symp-
toms were occasionally observed in one of
the horses. such as short and quick breath
ing, &c. On stating the case to DR.. Dadd,
the celebrated veterinary surgeon of Bos-
ton, it elected the following valuable let
ter. The Importance of occasional change
of food, which it recommends, is not suf-
ticiently attended to by farmers in feeding
their stock.
As regards your horse, he is better,)
l would change the diet Immediately.
He is probably suffering from acute, per-
haps chronic indigestion, which is very
apt to occur in animals when kept too
long on one kind of diet. it fails TO sup
port nutrition. See Liebig and Car
pender. The animals experimenting
upon, after a certain length of time, SEEM
ed willing to endure starvation, rather
than live on any one kind of diet. As re-
CARDS the adult horse, however, he will
exist for some time on highly nutritious
articles, such as oats, barley, corn, &c,
but finally induce diseases, such as lamin-
it's, rhumatism, founder, &c. They do
not require so much of the flesh making
principle as the young and growing ami
NAL, which not only requires sufficient
carbon in the form of food to renovate the
tissues, but also enough for growth and
development. The adult, however, re-
quires a greater ariety of food than the
latter, to support the integrity of its or
ganization; consequently, as you have fed
your horse on corn and cob meal all win
ter, there may be disproportion between
the amount Of carbon, lin the form of
tood) and the oxygen respired; hence his
digestion must be deranged, or carbon Tin
the form of fat) deposited in the various
tissues. A fat horse, of course, as YOU
are aware, is not the one for fast work or
fatigue, and the emaciated excepted, is
more likely to be come sick from the least
exciting cause. On the other hand. an
excess OF earbonaceous material derano-
ing the stomach-it holding sympathetic
relation with the brain-is apt to termin-
ate in the staggers, &c. It should be
known to horseman that an adult horse
should not increase in weight from year
to year; the food may be proportioned to
work, any increase in flesh or fat is a sig
nal TO dip lighter hand in the meal BAG
that Is II you want to keep disease and
death at bay. 1t pays to fatten cattle.
sheep, and swine, because the result is
dollars and cents but you may depend it
IS losing spec to fatten horses; for
among such 1 have the most practice.
their disease being more difficult to con-
troll than when occurring in others, in
fair working order. As regards corn and
cob meal, l think it operates iniuriously
on a great many horses. In the first
place they do not always masticate it
properly; it being soft and easily sali-
waited, they are apt to bolt it, as the say
ing IS. In order to obviate the difficulty.
the meal ought to be mixed with cut hav
or straw, articles that must be masticated
ere swallowed Should the digestive Or
gans be deranged, meal ferments very
rapidly, inducing fatulency. | should
not object to giving horse a feed of corn
meal occasionally, mixing it with cut hav
and little salt. Salt is a good anti-spep-
TIC, prevents fermentation; affords bv the
decomposition in the stomach, muriatic
acid and soda, aids digestion, and pre-.
vents the generation''of worms. The best
remedies for restoring digestive function:
are: Powdered salt, s ounces; powdered
gngtr, IA ounce; powdered charcoal. ]
ounce. Mix, divide into eight parts, anG
give one with the food night and morning
l. Western AgriculturdEst.