Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-06-26
AGRICULTURAL HINTS.
FOODS FOR the HORSE.

Something Abo.t Their Nutrative Values.
| The following foods are always rec
commended for feeding horses. Oats
stand at the head of the list of the arti-
cles of the horses feed. She1led oats
contain about seven hundred and forty
parts of nutritive matter to the one
thousand. They are easy of digestion,
healthy in the effect on the system, inn
proving the condition generally, and
enabling the horse to perform his work
without injury to his health or spirit
The quantity required per day for a
horse Of ordinary work, with proper al
lowance of hay, is about sixteen pounds
a day. The allowance, or ration, of the
United States cavalry horse is twelve
pounds of oats and twelve pounds of hay.
Cut oats is very good for a horse not
working.
The common Indian corn is very ex-
tensively used in the West as an article
of diet for the horse, but alone is too
stimulating. 1t may be used in winter,
and especially with horses that are
worked hard. The meal, used with
chopped feed or oats, is good. Indeed,
it would be the best and most economi-
cal at all times to have the corn ground.
None of its nutriment is then lost.
Beans may be fed to the horse alone,
or ground up with other food. In the
one thousand parts they contain five
hundred and seventy parts of nutritive
matter. They are very invigorating ar
ticle of diet. They are very stimulating
and are also astringent. The use of beans
alone would cause inconvenient costive-
ness It would pay well for our farmers
to give more attention to the culture of
beans for feeding purposes. Two pounds
of crushed beans day added to the
horses feed during the winter will
greatly increase his strength and en-
DURANGO.
Peas possess similar properties to
beans. They are not quite so stimu-
lating. They should be crushed or
ground They contain in one thousand
parts, five hundred and seventy-four
parts of nutritive matter; but like
beans. this is by no means the standard
of their invigorating and sustaining
quality. They are much more valuable
as an article of food than this would in
dictate. In some parts of this country
buckwheat is ground with other feed,
and is considered very nutritious and
healthy.
The better part of the wheat flour is
too expensive for horse feed; it is only
the shorts and bran that are given the
horse. Shorts are mild, non-stimulat-
ing and nutritious. Mixed with cut or
chopped hay shorts are valuable feed.
Scalded shorts are often recommended
as the first feed after recovery from
sickness, and also during sickness.
They have a laxative effect on the
bowels.
Bran is not so nutritious as shorts,
but mixed with cut hay is very much
relished, and mako good feed. Barley
contains nine hundred and twenty parts
of nutritive matter in the one thou
sand pounds. It is the common food
for the horse in some parts of the
continent of Europe. 1t is very stimu-
lating and laxative. It should be
bruised and given with cut hay. Boiled
barley is good laxative.
Potatoes contain two hundred and
thirty parts of nutritive matter to
the one thousand pounds. They are
given raw and sliced in cut feed, but they
are best boiled or steamed. 1t is best
to give them in mixed feed.
Carrots are regarded as promoting the
strength and endurance of the horse in
a high degree. They are much esteemed
as a feed for sick and convalescent
horses. In health, carrots may be given
sliced in cut feed. Half bushel day
is sufficient, if other strong feed is not
given. Boiled carrots are given to sick
horses. Carrots are much used in feed
ing racing and other sporting horses
They greatly improve the horses wind.
Western Rural