Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-09-04
THE COLT,
Tho Necessity of Proper Care of the Grow
ing Animal.

ing Animal.
Horses are kind of live stock which
are left largely to take care of them
selves in q certain sense. We busy our
selves about our cattle, sheep and swine.
How shall we feed-what shall we do to
make the calf, the lamb and the pig
more valuableP we ask time and
time again. But the colt comes,
grows and reaches maturity, under
about the same treatment that has been
common for hundreds of years. True
enough the system of management that
is generally adopted is not bad one.
At all events it answers. But that is not
quite enough in these days when we
wish to produce perfection as nearly as
possible. Are our horses as good as
they might be if the growing
animals were fed at all times upon a
strictly scientific basis? None of us
will give an affirmative answer to the
question, if we properly understand the
effect of feeding. The horse is valuable
in proportion to the development of its
muscle. A weak horse is very poor
property-a strong horse is good prop
erty Consequently the food given the
| colt and young horse, and in fact the
mature horse, needs to be largely of the
muscle forming character. Their food
does not need, and must not contain, so
large proportion of the carbonaceous
elements as do those which are fed to
ilesh-producing animals. In the latter
case a CONSPICUOUS part of the object in
feeding is fat, while in the former case,
| TO mil n to
amount of fat and great deal of mus
! Gle. Very often the horse is fed entirely
I too much corn. As portion of the
( corn is good, but to feed colt too much
of this specially fat-producing food, is
ruinous. And n order to keep the mat
ter steadily before the reader, we again
call attention, in this connection, to the
necessity of keeping the muscular and
oony systems up, in all animals and at
all times. This applies even to fatten-
ing animals.
Now when the colt is getting its food
from the dam, it is getting the following
elements, which is the composition of
mares milk; Casein, $40 per cent; but
ter, 2.50; milk sugar, 1852; ash, .53, and
water 5000 per cent. In mares milk
the dry matter, that is food, is about ten
per cent, 9.95 per cent. 10 be exact, and
something more than one-third of this is
casein. The milk of the mother of the
colt, therefore, furnishes one part OF
muscle, forming food to two parts of the
carbonaceous elements. With this les
son of nature before us we make mis-
take when we feed too largely food
which contains so large proportion of
starch, as corn, barley, etc. If the dam
gives sufficient milk, the colt will need
nothing else for six months. But if the
mare should give an insufficient quantity,
it must be supplemented with something
else, for we think it must be stated as a
fact whether it is always observable or
not, that colt that is insuiliciently
nourished during the first six months of
its life, never recovers what it thus loses.
Its slowness of growth, under such cir
cumstances, is not the worst of II. Its
digestion becomes weakened. The
stomach of the young animal unless ex-
tended by sufficient quantity OF food,
becomes contracted, and so when it is
wcaned, ii does not hold enough to
furnish the system with what it needs.
Young animals, ii must be remembered,
cannot grow on nothing. It's their food
that gives them growth and the more
food they utilize the more rapid will be
their growth.
Ii the dam, after generous feeding to
that end, does not give enough milk tc
satisfy the colt, the ration should be in
creased by giving cows milk, which il
nearly the same in composition TO thai
of the mare. We advise giving fresf
milk first, under such circumstances, bu
skim-milk may soon be given, and thai
contains precisely the elements whicl
the growing system most stands In neee
of Two quarts day, given in thu
! morning and at night, is about thu
proper amount for colt two month";
old. Some sweeten it little, and 1t u
good plan. although but very littl'
sugar should be added. The colt ma,
be allowed to eat oats as soon as it will
and before 1t is weaned, we would Civ,
II little linseed meal with oats, ant
thus teach II to eat it. Linseed meal !
| excellent food for a colt One breede
, writes that he gives TO colt eigh
months old, a half pint of ilax-see'
boiled In four quarts OF water, and the
two quarts of bran or oat meal boile
: with 1t, fed twice day In equal parts
TIE Stockraan