Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-01-16
Fading Stock Horaan

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The horse, says L. w. Stewart. in
the Rural Nct0 Yorker, is the principal
motive power, on the farm, and there
fore needs the best attention. This
class of stock is kept wholly for its
muscle, and the working and culture of
the farm must depend greatly upon the
character and condition of the horses.
The winter season is one of compare
tive leisure for horses, as farms are
usually managed, and farmers appear
to think horses require little attention
when they are not in hard labor. They
are quite in the habit of keeping them
upon poor hay and straw at this season,
reserving all grain for spring feeding.
But this is very bad policy. Horses
generally come to winter-quarters in
thin condition from their summers
labor, and require judicious feeding and
good care to recover their full working
capacity; and farmers should remem-
Der that it is much cheaper to put
horses in condition when work is very
light, and that all the extra flesh put on
in winter represents so much extra
labor available in spring. Besides it
should always be the aim of team own
ers to keep their horses in good work
ing condition, for it takes less food to
keep up condition than to recover it
when lost.
Let us examine a few rations for
work horses in winter. Horses are
often subject to collie from improper
feeding. When fed upon corn-meal
alone, its large percentage of starch
nd
is very concentrated food, and being
just moistened with saliva so as to be
swallowed, it goes into the stomach in
the compact form of dough, and the
gastric juice can not circulate through
it so as properly to perform its Office,
and internal heat, fever and collie often
occur from want of proper digestion.
All such concentrated food should be
mixed with cut hay, the hay being Just
moistened SO that the meal will
adhere to it. This mixes the
concentrated with the bulky food,
and the hay separates the particles of
meal so as to render the mixture porous
and the gastric juice now circulates
freely through the mass and operates
upon the whole contents of the stomach
at once. The best way to use corn
meal as a single grain food, is to mix
it with moistened clover hay. If the
clover is of good quality, it contains a
larger percentage of albuminoids
(muscle-forming food) than cornmeal,
aud thus helps to balance the constit-
uents.
But one of the best rations for work
horses is corn, oats and flaxseed,
ground together-the corn and oats in
equal weight, and to nineteen bushels
of the mixture of corn and oats add one
bushel of flaxseed, and grind fine, all
together. The corn and oats make a
weli-balanced ration, and the flaxseed
is rich in oil, muscle-forming and bone
building elements; but its oil is its
greatest sanitary element. This small
proportion of oil is just sufficient to
keep the bowels in excellent condition,
the coat sleek, and every part of the
system in well-balanced activity. And
then by feeding this ground mixture
with twice its bulk of moistened cut
hay you have as perfect a ration for
work horses as can be compounded.
All regular grist-mills now have an APP
paratus for mixing different grains to-
gether, so that the farmer has only 10
carry the oats, corn, or haxseed in
proper quantity to mill, and they will
all be mixed without hand labor. If
the farmer has no straw-cutter he may
use oats or wheat chaff to mix with the
meal to render it porous.
In wintering horses that are doing
but little work, straw may be fed with
the last ration and the horses will do
well. From eight to ten pounds of this
meal to each horse daily will bring
them through finely, even on good
straw. When oats are too.expensive,
cornmeal and wheat bran mixed in
equal weights, with one pint of oil
meal to each horse, will give a good
result. If hay is scarce, two pounds
of decorticated cotton-seed meal, four
pounds of cornmeal, four pounds of
bran and straw will winter horses well.
But there should always be variety in
the food. If the farmer has clover hay
and straw, these should be mixed to-
gether-better if both be cut before
mixing, but they may be mixed in the
manger without cutting.