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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 129, 31 January 1874, Page 3

Soms useful information for all who keep horses may be obtained by studying the evidence taken before the Select Committee on Horses, just printed. For instance it appears from the evidence of Mr. Church, the general manager and secretary of the General Omnibus Company, that oats have been discarded as forage for omnibus horses for the last six years. These animals are fed entirely on maize and chaff, each horse receiving as its daily rationabout 171bs. of the former andlOlbs. of the latter. The maize is just broken sufficiently to enable the horses to eat it without difficulty, and they thrive better on this fodder than they ever did on oats. Indeed, every one who remembers the omnibus horse of former days, with his

hollow ribs, must observe a vast improvement, in the condition of the animals. On the ground of economy also maize is preferable to oats as forage for horses, its jiricebeing inuoli lAwer, amt the saving efi( ( led being about 3s or Is a quarter. These facts have long been known to many owners of horses, but gentlemen with private stables find great difficulty in substituting bruised maize and chaff for the old fashioned forage of oats and trusses of hay. Coachmen and corndealers resolutely oppose the innovation for the reason that it enables the owners of horses to exercise a control over supplies for their stables and prevent waste and fraud. Nothing can be more simple than to allow so many pounds weight of a compound forage for each horse per day and to see that he gets it; whereas it is almost impossible to check the consumption or ascertain the quality of oats and trusses of hay which are frequently delivered deficient in weight to the injury of both the horses and their owner, but to the advantage of the servant and the tradesman.