The husk of the oat, as it is sifted from the meal, is sometimes given to horses. This stuff is termed seeds. It always contains a little meal; but is often adulterated by adding what are called the sheeling seeds, the husk without any meal. It does very well as a masticant; and may be mingled with oats, beans, or barley, to make the horse grind them, but it can not yield much nutriment, and many horses will not eat it.

Gruel is made from oat-meal. It is very useful for sick horses: and after a day of severe exertion, when the horse will not take solid food, gruel is the best thing he can have. Few stablemen are able to make it properly. The meal is never sufficiently incorporated with the water. One gallon of good gruel may be made from a pound of meal, which should be thrown into cold water, set on the fire and stirred till boiling, and afterward permitted to simmer over a gentle fire till the water is quite thick. It is not gruel at all if the meal subside and leave the water transparent. Bracy Clark recommends that the meal be well triturated with a little cold water, in a beechen bowl, by a heavy wooden pestle. He thinks the trituration necessary to effect a union between the water and some constituent of the meal. This seems to be one of the "not a few useful and important discoveries" for which Mr. Clarke so clamorously demands our homage.

Oaten Bread is sometimes given to sick horses. It may tempt the appetite and excite a disposition to feed. - See Bread.