Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-06-09
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
The Stockman's Column.

y = go SNSSAA@A@AA& SSASA4AAo a
COOOOOOoooOCOOOoOO oOooooG
In the latest Digest of Recent Ex-
periments on Horse Feeding" issued
by the United States department of
ton, there is an importent summary Of
tic latest conclusions on the subject Il
the comparative merit of cooked and
raw feeu for horses, dry ana soaked
grain. g.ound and unsr1 md Grain, AID
cut or chopped or uncut coarse fodder.
L is often claimed that cooking feel
increases its palatabil.ty and iigecti.
hility The general cor3.uslon drawn
from tests with farm animals is hat
this belief is not warranted. and ;hat
the cost of cooking is not made up fer
by tie increased value of the ration
Prof w. A. Henry states that boiled
feed is useful for colts, brood 1ual es
and stations if fed two Or three times
per week, and that draft horses which
are being prepared fo~ sale Or for eX
hibition may be given cooked feed
once Gay. In his opinion an excellent
feed for horses is made by boiling
barley and oats in a kettle with consid-
cradle water and pouring the mass ov-
err chaffed hay, allowing the whole to
stand until the hay is well softened
Bran, roots and a small quantity of
oil meal may be added also.
1t is often said that cooking feed
especially hard grain, renders it more
easily masticated and improves its di-
gestibility. 1t is doubtful if the matter
is as important with horses as some
other classes of farm animals. Accord
ing to Wolff, healthy horses with good
teeth digested dry beans and corn as
well as the same materials which had
been soaked in water for twenty-four
hours.
Soaking or wetting feed may some
times be OF Importance as regards the
health of horses Absorbing to the ex-
perience of an English feeder, chaffed
straw, which was fed on account of a
shortage in the hay crop gave better
results when soaked than when dry.
The dry material caused collie and
constipation. 1t was also observed that
the horses relished soaked grain (corn
and oats, I'D
1t is believed that the dust in the
hay causes heaves, and to avoid such
trouble, both long and cut hay, espec-
tally clover is very often dampened
before feeding, laying the dust.
Opinions differ as regards the advan-
tages OF grinding grain. In Prof. Hen
rvs opinion, for horses which are out
of the stable during the day and work
ed hard, all grains with the possible
exception of oats, should be ground,
and for those at extremely hard work
all grain should be ground and mix
ed with chaffed hay. For idle horses
cats or grain should not be ground
nor should hay or straw be chaffed. In
other words provided the animals have
time to masticate their ration thor.
oughly grinding is not necessary When
this is not the case, grinding takes
the place of thorough mastication to
some extent and increases the assim'
ilation of the ration.
When whole oats were compared
with ground wheat and bran by Shep-
herd at the North Dakota station, the
horses fed the former ration ate some
what more and showed slight loss
in weight, while doing less work than
those fed on ground grain.
In a test of the comparative merits
of timothy hay and corn and clover
oats and wheat, made with two lots OF
work horses at the Utah station, the
grains were fed unground for some.
what more than one-half of the ex,
detrimental period, and ground during
the remainder of the period. The
ground and unground grains were re
garded as equally satisfactory.
At the Iowa station Wilson and Cur
tbs compared whole and ground grain
| Goats corn and barley) for colts, and
found that somewhat larger gains were
made on the ground feed.
In the study of the digestibility Of
| the different feeding stuffs carried OF
at the Maryland Experimental Station
| Patterson compared number o.
whole and ground feeds His results
show that ground oats and corn Were
more thoroughly digested than the un
ground grain. In this connection i
should be noted that similar results
have been obtained in tests with 9th
er farm animals, but it is commonl.
believed that the difference in digest
ibility is often not sufficient to pa,
for the additional cost of grinding.
From the American tests and those
which have been made in Europe it
appears fair to say that there is nc
very marked advantage in grinding
grain for healthy horses with good
| teeth. Layalard says:
Contrary to the opinion of some ex
perts, the writer believes it is moi
necessary to grind grain for horses
This is especially true in the case OF
oats. In some of our earlier expert
ments, where ground grain was fed, il
was noticed after few months tina
the horses preferred to crush it them
selves. OF course this does not refer
to old horses, i. e., horses having pool
teeth. They can be fed ground grair
to advantage"
When the time for feeding is limited
Ichaffing and cutting coarse fodder il
Regarded as advantageous. This is al
ldtem OF especial Importance with hare