Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-04-30

be trusted with the same feeding any
where. In fact, failure is never allowed
to arise from imperfect feeding. As
long as horses feet stand soundly
under him he can do full DAYS work.
All this is done with street-car compa-
MES on daily ration of sixteen pounds
OF ground corn and oats, mixed with
sixteen pounds of finely cut hay for a
horse weighing ], 200 pounds. This ra-
ton is varied somewhat to suit the in.
dividual peculiarities OF different ami
mails. There are large and small eaters
among horses as among human beings,
but on the average this will be sutfi-
cient for horses of this weight.
: Most farmers feed more heavily than
this and with a much greater proper
tionate increase in bulk. This consti-
tutes very common mistake in feed
ing. Relying largely on hay to furnish
nutriment, the strength required to be
exerted can not be had without so large
bulk as greatly to impede the horse s
freedom of movement. We have known
farmers to feed more than twice as
much hay as is given in this ration,
while diminishing the grain to the low
est point or even giving none at all.
The horse, of course, can live on hay;
but it is very Improbable food to be
given him while at work. If hay is
given in excess at other times, or as
the main portion of his food, it will
cause unnatural distentlon of the
stomach, which will impair his etficien-
cy afterward.
Ground grain is the cheapest form in
which nutriment can be given to work
ing horses. But to produce the best
effect it should be mixed with cut hay,
not to give greater bulk, for this the
horses stomach does not require. but
to make the food more porous in the
stomach, so that the gastric juices may
more freely work through it. Meal
alone, especially of corn which has
scarcely any chaff, will compact in the
stomach and be less easily digestible.
The heavy chatf of oats is one of the
reasons why this grain is so valuable
for horse feed. Another is the oat
abounds in heterogeneous or muscle-form-
ing food, and is therefore worth more
per pound where strength is required
than corn or oil meal, whose chief con-
stituents are carbonaceous or fat-pro-
ducing.
Regard must be had to the kind of
work to be done. Liverymen, whose
horses are required to make fast time
on the road, feed more concentrated
food than the managers of street car
horses. Remembering that porousness
of the food in the stomach is all that is
needed to insure good digestion, the
meal ration may be proportionally in
creased. just enough hay cut up to
keep the mass of food porous, like
sponge, is sufficient. Ii oats are ground
alone. the hull of the oat will furnish
so much of bulk that little
cut hay will be needed, and
for part of this wheat bran may
be substituted. Four or five pounds
of hay per day may thus be made to
serve to give bulk to a mixture of con-
centrated food, consisting of corn and
oatmeal ground together with an addi-
ton of bran, and perhaps small guam
tity of Oil meal, say a quarter to one
half pound of the latter in each feeding.
The bran and meal are excellent to
keep the bowels in good condition,
though just at the times of severe work
the Oil meal had better be omitted. 1t
is wiser policy to keep the bowels
working freely by judicious feeding,
rather than to allow the horse to be-
come constipated and then dose with
physic. There is much more virtue in
bran and wheat middlings as food for
working horses than is commonly sup
posed. In many places bran is sold as
cheaply by the ton as hay. For giving
strength it is more valuable pound for
pound, and it is nearly as good as cut
hay as divisor of more concentrated
nutrment. Wheat middlings are also
excellent, but they need to be mixed
with larger bulk Of cut feed to insure
compaction in the stomach. If hay
can not easily be obtained straw will
answer as divisor, though the quanti-
ty of hay absolutely required is so
much less than is generally used that
very little will suffice for horses food
during the working season, provided
grain or meal can be had in abundance.
Owners of horses in cities have long
learned economy in the use of hay feed,
which might be proftably initiated by
many farmers. Having to buy every
thing that they feed, city people soon
learn to calculate closely as to compar-
alive cost and efficiency of feed. Too
many farmers act as if hay was pro-
duced with little or no expense. Should
they reckon the interest on high-priced
land and the laborin securing the crop,
they might!.easily find their homegrown
hay the costliest feed their teams could
eat. Most farmers are averse to selling
hay, which is usually proper enough,
as this has a tendency to exhaust their
soils, but they have no such prejudice
against selling the coarser grains, that
take from the soil a greater value than
the same weight of the best timothy
hay. Hence they feed hay and sell
grain under the mistaken notion that
this is the best way to maintain the
fertility of their farms. They should
know and consider that the manure
from a ton of wheat bran or wheat
contains more of the valu-
able elements of plant food than the
from ton of timothy hay.
We are not advising farmers to sell
hay, but plan of feeding which SUBJ
stitutes grain or wheat middlings for
less valuable feed will enable them to
get more work from their teams, make
more valuable manure from their stock,
and thus enable them to do better farm
ing in every respect.-Anaerscam Cuttd-
Gator.