The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-07-15
phoric acid and potash.-,Jas. Hunnfs
cut, in Farmers Home Journal.
THE HORSE in SUMNER.
the Wants of His Animal az
He Does His Own.

The treatment of the horse in sum.
mer should be very different from that
usually accorded the animal. Probably
fer so much as from lack of water. We
go into the field on hot day, and take
with us a jug of water to quench our
thirst. Without this provision, lam
guage could hardly describe the suf-
ferings we should endure. But the
horse, which is compelled to go with
out water for half a day, needs 1t as
often as a man does. The animal
should be watered frequently, and it
would last longer, if some means could
be provided for watering at least once
from morning to noon and from noon
to night 1t would not be much trouble
to provide the means, especially when
wagon is taken to the field. A can,
such as Waukesha water is shipped in,
would hold enough water to furnish
'sup" for four horses. All that is
needed therefore, is can of this kind
and pail.
The head of the horse should always
be protected from the hot sun. 1t is
simply q wonder that more horses are
not struck. The top of the head is ex-
posed TO rays of the sun that heat
even brick walls through and through.
The harness makers now have shade
that is easily attached to the top of the
head, and it furnishes the most con-
venient means of protection to the
horses brain. A green, broad leaf of
some kind, or bunch of weeds, how
ever, will answer. So will a wet sponge.
In our experience, we have found that
If the work in the field is abandoned
in the middle of the day, on very hot
days-beginning earlier in the morn
ing and working as long as you can
see at night-the same amount of
work can be done, and done, of course,
with much more comfort to both man
and beast. If the horse is given an oc-
casional sponge bath in summer, the
animal will not only enjoy it but will
be benefited by it. Perspiration and
the dust fills up the pores of the skin.
1t is common to condemn the
feeding of corn, in large quanti-
ties, to stock of any kind, ex-
cept it is undergoing the fattening
process. 1t is barely possible that we
go too far in this condemnation. 1t
barely possible that chemical analysis
does not always tell the true value OF
food. That is to say, food whose
chemical composition indicates that
it is not what either the animal or hui
man system requires, may prove to be,
in actual practice, a very excellent
food. Recently two distinguished
London physicians, after careful in
vestigation, demonstrated, to their
own satisfaction, that white bread was
more nourishing than "brown bread"
This is such radical antagonism to
the general view, that some will laugh
at 1t, but when the advantages and
disadvantages of the two breads were
compared by these physicians, they
made out pretty good case. So corn
has proved in actual practice good
grain for work borses. But it is fat
| forming, heating food and in summer
should not constitute more than half
! the ration at most. Nor should the
horse have too much hay Grass is al
| ways in order. II is possible that we
feed too much. AS rule human be-
ings eat too much. They could get
along with much less, and be better
off. Some years ago New England
man declared that hoise could hive,
keep in order. and have more spirit Oh
one-half of what he was usually fed.
1t is a matter which experiment can
readily determine.-D. w. W., in Agri-
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