Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-02-03

lood for horses, IS wen Is Other stook In
the United States, and Is now laryelv
purchased in England and Europe as q
part of therstion for work-herses. It
quite as concentrated as bean meal. and
more heating in its nature, because II
has larger proportion of carbohydrates
than beanss.peas, oats or barley, and II
comparatively deficient in mnscle-forrn-
ing elements. Corn, when ground into
fine meal (the best condition for feed
ing) and moistened, becomes very plas-
tic and adheres into a solid mass, not
easily penetrated by any liquid. When
corn meal is masticated by horse it
becomes saturated with saliva and takes
the form of a plastic, adhesive mass,
and in this form goes into the stomach
of the horse. 1t is obvious that the mus
Ifcular movements OF the stomach can
only move or roll this mass about, but
can not separate or loosen its particles
SO as to render it sufficiently porous for
the circulation and operation of the gas
trio juice. 1t is for this reason that
whole corn, or that coarsely ground, =,
mayb be fed alone to horse with less
danger of collie or other diseases in
duced by fevered stomach, because in
the form of7cracked kernels it can; not
adhere into such solid, plastic mass,
and what is not digested will be passed
in the droppings. But as the object of
grinding is. to reduce the. grain to such
fine particles that the dgesting fluid may
saturate and completely act upon it in
the shortest time, the value of grinding
is in proportion to the fineness of divi-
sion. And when this finely ground corn
meal is mixed with little more than half
its weight, but several times its bulk, of
cut hay, as above described, this fibrous
hay so completely separates the parti-
cles of meal as to form spongy, porous
mass, that fluids will pass through freely.
When the horse masticates the meal he
also fmasticates the hay, and the whole
goes into the stomach together. This
seems to be in imitation of nature, for
when the horse eats grain or ripened
grass in its natural state, he eats the
stalk with the seed. When man, there
fore, separates the grain for the purpose
of grinding, or making a more econom-
zeal use of, he should again mix it with
fbrous food, that the horse may not suf-
fer from too concentrated food.
And, as we have seen, the street rail-
discovered the necessity of remingling
the grain with coarse fodder. These
great practical examples are sufficient
authority for the practice, but we
thought it important to give the reasons I
on which the practice is founded. /
Indian corn is the great food crop for
animals in this country, and is produced
in nearly every county of every State,
and probably more cases of horse-colic
arise from feeding corn meal than from
all other foods combined; and this
occurs among farm horses,
because farmers study the philosophy |
of foods very little, or the effect of con-
dition of foods upon animal health. |
They feed what is most convenient and |
cheapest, without considering that any
good food can be other than healthy. |
I have known of the death of at least q
dozen horses which, on examination,
proved to be caused by feeding corn |
meal alone. Some feed wet and others |
dry. But when fed alone, it is more |
dangerous wet than dry, because the
wet meal may be swallowed with very
little mastication, while the dry meal
must be masticated till the saliva satu-
rates it before it can be swallowed, and
the saliva assists digestion. 1t is there
fore in better condition for digestion
when fed dry than wet. But four of
those who had lost horses by feeding
meal alone, when they changed the sys-
tenn and fed the meal upon cut hay
so that both must be eaten
together, had no further losses or even
illness of their horses.
In my experience of about thirty
years in feeding work horses, no i'll eff
fect has arisen from feeding corn meal,
ground as fine as bur millstones can
do it, when mixed with cut hay
or straw. I have had cases of collie,
out it was always traced to carelessness
If the feeder and violation of orders in
not mixing the meal with cut hay. I
nave fed horses upon various concen-
rated grains, ground into fine meal,
rom four years old to twenty, and they
we're always in good health when the
'ule of mixing fine meal with cut hay or
straw was strictly adhered to-Natioasa!
LiUe Stock Journal.
A Terrapin Farm.