The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-08-20
Food for Working Horses.

Food for Working Horses.
There are two kinds of work for
horses: Fast driving, and slow pull.
ing, as blowing or hauling heavy loads
upon roads, The difference leween
these two kinds of work would reason
ably call for different feeding. The
fast working horse exerts the lungs
more freely than the slow worker;
hence, the food should be more concen-
trated but yet digestible; it should also
contain a sufficient quantity of fibre
mixed with the finer matter to give the
masticated food porous conslstence
and prevent it from forming too solid
mass in the stomach Oats are precise
ly the kind of food required to meet
such case. The husk of oats forms a
large portion of the substance Of the
Grain, while the kernel is rich in nitro.
genous matter, and has sufficient car
bonaceous matter to suppl all the needs
of the lungs, which are stimulated by
the muscular action to greatly increased
exertion. Oats contain precisely the
requisite proportions of fine and course
matter for the horses aliment in suf-
fciently concentrated condition to avoid
overlooking the stomach, and are thus
the best food for the fast working horse,
which needs no hay. But to get the
best result from this grain it should be
crushed and should be fed four times
day, so that the system is never ex-
hausted for want of food.
The slow working horse, on the con-
trary, the farm horse for instance, does
not require concentrated food nor so
frequent feeding, because its work is
slower and the consumption of force is
not so great. A nature richer in car
bonaceous elements is required, and as
bulk is not Objectionable a cheaper food
may be used. The ration of city car
horse for instance, which does not travel
more than four miles an hour, is about
fourteen pounds of hay and twenty
pounds of corn meal, finely ground,
and on this feed the horses travel about
twenty miles day. The meal is never
fed alone and always with cut hay,
which is wetted, and it is found that
the finer the meal is the better it sticks
to and mixes with the hay, and the
better, therefore, it is digested. To feed
whole corn aud long hay has been prov
ed over and over again to be waste OF
one-third of the food, aud to feed fine
meal dry and alone, without the cut
hay, is exceedingly dangerous, and apt
to produce a fatal attack of colo.
Where economy is not a pressing neces-
sity an excellent feed is ten bushels Of
corn, ten bushels of oats, five bushels Of
rye and one bushel of faxseed ground
together. This meal affords every ell.
ement required for slow working
horse, and the oil of the flIxseed has a
most excellent medical effect upon the
bowels. as we'll as supplying carbonace-
Gus and fattening matter which is spec
Tally we'll adapted 10 the healIhlul sup
ply of the oil glands of the skin. The
soft glossy coat of the horse fed upon
this mixture-which is a common one
among the best farmers of Eastern and
Central Pennsylvania, who grow flax
seed for the special purpose Of feeding
it to their horses and calves-proves
how this food fits the functions of the
skin. Where the grain ration is rich,
the hay may be reduced in quantity
and straw substituted for it, The
Pennsylvania farmers use their rye
straw for horse food and sell hay,
bringing back for every ton of hay "a
urge load of manure, which taxes the
full strength of their enormous wagons
and their powerful four-horse teams
The heterogeneous character of clover hay
fits it excellently for the food of work
ing horses, and if it is cut and wetted
and mixed with corn meal makes, with
out any other mixture, a sufficient food
for the hardest worked farm horses.
INV son hod an abscess in his side.