THE HORSE AND HIS TREATMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1654, 7 April 1884, Page 2

THE HORSE AND HIS TREATMENT.

Mvsfc, as regards food, The horse l's naturally a wild animal and therefore, though domesticated, he demands such food as nature would provide for him; But man seems to forget this, Nature's food would be largely of grass. It is true that when domesticated and. putto bard work he needs some food of a more concentrated and highly nutritious nature than grass; but while labor may necessitate grain, the health o£ his system yet demands a liberal allowance of grass- Indirect opposition to this many farmers keep their horses off pasture while they are at work, which comprises almost the entivo season of green pastures. I have frequently heard farmers say that their horses did best during the spring and summer, if kept in the stable at night. .'[ can only say that I found the opposite to be true, and I believe I have carefully and faithfully tested tho matter. I have found that when the horses were I allowed the range of a blue grass pasture at night, they endured work the best, because they digested their grain and hay better, .and: good digestion made good appetites, In fact, I consider pasture the best food and tho best medicine a horse can bo given. If hig ooat is rough, if he is stiff and lifeless, ut he is losing flesh arid strength, turn him on pasture and he will soon grow better, -

Some grasses make far better pasture than; others, All in all I consider blue grass the best, It comes earliest, m the spring, and whilo vory palatable and easi j digested seems to possess more _substance than other grasses. Next I would place timothy. Clover is good medicine for a sick horse, but because of its action on the salivary glands is apt to make work horses slobber at certain seasons, For winter hay is provided. But !? L fc ,P in a majority of cases \ The grass is cut out of season, is cured negligently, very likely exposed to the rain, and piled up to would and rot. A few tarpaulins to put over the cocks in case of rain, and barracks or mow to protect and pre. servo the hay would give the horse good hay, and be one of the very best investments. It should be remembered that the digestive organs of none other of our farm animals are so easily deranged as those of the horse. Musty, mouldy hay is the moving cause of much disease. The man who cannot ..provide a good mow should sell his hoises to some farmer who can manage better. 0

. Though _ blue grass is tho best for pasture,rtimothy is the best for hay. Clover makes hotter hay than blue glass. Corn fodder lias substance, and pound for pound contains about twothirds as much nutriment as hay. But it is not good forage for the horse. Where hay is procurable corn fodder should never be fed.

. } m convinced that the great ma jOlity of farmers do-not; feed their horses enough forage. : I know of farmen who do not feed hay at aU when their horses are at work; which is more than, half the year. Grain is fed exclusively. Yet they wonder why theii horses lose flcsli and have rough coats, Feeding , a horse all grain ia like feeding a man. all meat. The food is so oily and difficult of digestion that it soon deranges the digestive organs, The horse should have oil the Lay he wishes to eat, at all seasons of the yeai. This brings mo to another error in his treatment.

When at work the horse should have at least ninety minutes for each meal. My observation convinces me that a large numbor ,of fanners do not give him this muck time. Their reason for neglecting to do so is that it would be a loss of time. But the very opposite of thi3 is the case. Time is gained. The' horse has opportunity to eat slowly, which is essential to complete digestion, can eat all he wishes, and has time to rest after eating, giving the organs of digestion a chance to work. Give your horso an hour and a half to eat his noonday meal, at least, and at the end of the season you will find that by so doing you have gained time. He may not have walked before the plough and harrow so many hours, but ho has stepped faster and pulled more energetically. Another error is the feeding of too much grain. Some farmers have grain in the feeding troughs all the time during the spring and summer. The horse is sated. This manaer may do for a hog, whose only business is to lie around, grunt and get fat; but for a horse it will not do. A horse should never be given all the grain he will eat. ki every meal ho should clean out his box, and then be ready to eat hay for at least fifteen minutes.

Another error is in confining the grain feed almost altogether to corn. Corn is a heavy, gross diet. It contains a large proportion of oil, and tends to produce lymph and fat, which are inimical to the health, and destructive of vigor and endurance. Oats is a much better food; yet it is very rarely fed in the South, and not half of the farmers ot the North feed it. Corn heats the blood, and on this account should not be fed in hot weather. Oats is a lighter, easier diet, does not heat the blood, and makes musclo, rather than fat. All in all, oats is the most economical food, at least for horses at work in hot weather.

_ One mora error which I shall notice in feeding is the giving of too much dry food. The horse does best upon moist food, or that which Iws a large percentage of water in its composition. Carrots, turnips, beets, pumpkins, die., may be given in small quantities with decided advantage, especially in the winter. In summer the hay should be sprinkled with water, and tho oats soaked. This will not only make the food more palpatable and easily digested, but will obviate tho necessity of watering after meals. Many object to watering after the horso has eaten, because the fluid carries the grain into the intestines where it cannot be digested, But if grain and forage are dampened, the horse will not require ■watering after a meal, He will rarely drink if water is offered him, and the moisture will aid digestion. This is surely better and more humane than to give a horse dry food and then work him for six or seven hours in the hot ' sun aftenvatd without any drink. Of the quality of water given to the horse there is not much to condemn, He generally gets better water than the hog, or sheep, because he is very very fastidious in this matter, and will not drink foul water unless driven to do so by dire necessity, But I believe that three tiuiea is not often onough to water a horse at work in hot weather, though this is tho common and time honored practice, The stomach of the horse is small—very small in proportion to the size ot his body, When he has labored in summer for half a day his thirst is intense, and when he is permitted to slake it he drinks too much,. producing really serious disorders. No valid objection can be urged against watering five times per day, The arguments are all in its favor.

The errors in stabling are fully as griovous as any we have noticed. I have lately written of the evils of lack iQf light and proper ventilation in these columns, and also discussed the problem of currying in various phrases, so shiill not repeat liera what I have heretofore written. One of the other evils of stable management often allowed is tho accumulation of manure, It is not. within the scope of this article to notice the evil the neglect to save manure works to the farm and the farmer. But thai the accumulation of . the manure in the stable is a hurt to the horse, no sensible reasoning person can doubt