The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-03-16
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Feeding Horses.

Thorough justification of food is neces-
sary to it's proper digestion. The horse
masticates its food but once, and if this be
done hurriedly the stomach must suffer
for it. In eating oats most horses are too
greedy and take too many into the mouth
at once. The only remedy for this is some
style of feed box, which permits only
moderate moutbful to descend into cup
has taken this, another mouthful falls, and
thus he is restrained from taking more than
he can masticate well. Grinding the oats
would be 4 remedy for this; but as nearly
all horses are fed unground oats, and we
fear, will continue to be so fed, would it
not be prudent economy to construct feed
boxes so as to prevent this waste of grain
as we'll as to preserve the health of the
horse. All food that passes the stomach
of the horse without proper digestion is a
source of irritation and disease. There
have been many attempts to arrange feed
boxes to prevent the horse from eating too
greedily, but we have seen nothing so SIM
pie and yet so effectual as that of W. S.
Shaw of Buffalo, n. y. 1t is no more
labor to use it than any ordinary feed box,
but the horse is prevented from getting
more than small mouthful at time.
HOW TO FEED MEAL.
Corn is.the great food of America-and
will be used to a large extent for horses as
well as other stock. 1t is cheaper than
oats for work horses-costing generally
twenty-five per cent less per pound, while
corn is all concentrated nutriment, and
oats more than one third husk. This shows
why corn meal is so popular as feed for
work horses. But through bad manage
ment in feeding, it is the source of many
ellis that horse flesh is heir to-
The gastric juice can perform its func-
ton of digestion only upon the particles of
food it comes in contact with or takes up
in solution. When meal is fed alone it
goes into the stomach of the horse in the
compact and sold form of the housewives
dough; and this cannot be penetrated by
the gastric juice; it only saturates little
of the outside surface, and much Of this
dough is never brought in contact with the
digesting fluid, but serves as an irritant in
the stomach and intestines, causing fever,
collie, blind staggers and disease of many
names. Nature has provided fodder com
posed largely of woody fiber to give bulk
and to separate the particles of concentra-
ted food.
| Corn meal or other concentrated food
may be fed with safety, if mixed with two
to three times its bulk of cut hay or straw
and moistened, so the meal will adhere to
the hay, and all eaten together. BY pur-
suing this plan, we have fed colts from six
months old with corn meal and always to
advantage. The only reason why corn
meal is more heating or heavier feed for
horse than oats, consists in the fact that
oats contains 30 lbs. of meal and 12 lbs. of
hUsk per bushel; nature having mix
ed the concentrated and bulky parts in
healthy proportion. Many thousands of
lIoIsS piO SNSiy JSoA i''hi iSSN'hSo va
meal and other such concentrated foods
alone. Our experience, for twenty years,
has proved that the health of working
horses is entirely in the hands of the feeder
and driver; but more in the hands of the
feeder. The Pennsylvania farmers, who
drive such sleek horses, and feed them on
rye Or corn meal mixed with cut rye straw,
have found out the secret of a proper mix
ture of food. Nature furnishes the grasses
which contain proper combination of
clements and in bulky Stata.
These produce growth and health with
out labor; but as the horse is put to severe
tests of physical endurance, in his domes-
ticated state. much concentrated food is
required to sustain it. 1t therefore hehoves
the feeder so to combine this food as to
preserve the best health and develop the
greatest strength. His motto should be,
"Never feed concentrated food alone"
Lire Stock Journal.