Discovery About Horses.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 26 June 1914, Page 2

Discovery About Horses.

CUTTING THE COKN-CHAN-DLER'S BILL.

An uppercut has been struck at the high cost of living for horses. American experimenters have found a ration for working animals that is just as good as oats and timothy hay (called cats-tail grass) —the old standard feed—and it's onethird cheaper. It's a balanced ration of corn and alfalfa hay (otherwise lucerne), with a very little

oats thrown in as a relish. Every man who feeds a horse, we are told by Mr. Harlan D. Smith, who reports on the subject, will appreciate this discovery.

To find this cheaper feed for horses w<as the aim of a gigantic test recently completed, with the result noted. Nine hundred government 'horses were divided into seventeen lots and fed as many rations for 140 days. They were artillery horses. The test was planned by Prof. R. .7. Kinzer, formerly head of the department of animal husbnndry at the Kansas Agricultural '."•c/llege. Dr. C. W. McCampbell ma.'iagred the details. It probably

''■<.<■■< tne largest horse feeding ex' periment ever conducted, and the results obtained are thought to be most conclusive and dependable. The biggest gain of the experiment —25.6 pounds a head in 140 days —was made by the lot which ate the prize ration—eight pounds of corn, two of oats, and ten of alfalfa hay. And this gain was made on ten pounds of grain instead of twelve as fed to the other lots, and ten pounds of hay instead of fourteen when timothy and prairie hay were used. Furthermore —and this is the real point—this ration cost only thirteen cents (a cent, is about a halfpenny) daily, compared with eighteen to twenty cents for the other rations used. The cost of a daily ration for a horse is computed on the basis of a one thou-sand-pound animal. Everyone of those nine hundred animals had its breakfast, dinner, and supper weighed exactly to the ounce and recorded, every one of those 140 daj'S. The nine hundred horses were divided into ten lots of seventy-five each, and seven lots with seventeen to twenty in each. The menu was different in every lot. Some ate oats and prairie hay with a little oil meal as a relish ; others had corn and alfalfa with bran^ for dessert ; another lot stuck to barley and timothy hay, and so on. Grain was fed three times a day, begin- ' ning at 5.30 in the morning, and hay once, at night. They were watered in the morning about two hours after being fed, and in the afternoon they were turned into an exercise yard after returning from their work. They had access to ! water, and remained there until feeding time at night. Though the experiment was made with army horses, Dr. Campbell says the results are just as applicable to the feeding of farm and city horses. The work done by artillery horses every day is equal to that done on the average farm. To make alfalfa hay a satisfactory horse feed it must be cut and fed properly. Another discovery of this experiment—and this may disappoint you —was that horses which ate oats did not show any more spirit than those getting corn. Close observations on this were made. Of course, it is too bad to explode such a fine old theory, but it couldn't be helped, it seems.-

In addition to those already mentioned, the experiment disclosed other facts about feeds, the most important of which are. given here, briefly : Oats proved to be slightly better for work horses than corn when fed with timothy or prairie hay. Corn and oats proved more valuable than corn alone but not so valuable as oats alone. Barley has practically the same feeding value .as oats. Bran is worth more, pound for pound, as a part of a ration for a working horse than alfalfa meal.

No digestive disturbances could be credited to any ration used in this experiment. Horses getting bran, oil meal, or alfalfa hay, showed the best condition. The general health and condition of working horses is greatly influenced by the regularity and manner of feeding. Ability to detect individual peculiarities of animals plays a very important part in successful feeding.—"Popular Science Sittings."