Although boiling and steaming vegetable food tend, like the action of the digestive juices, to render it soluble; they bring about its more or less complete saturation with water, which is such a serious disadvantage that the application of these processes to the preparation of the food of horses should, as a rule, be restricted to the corn of sick horses or to that of animals which need a change of diet.

Steaming is manifestly less objectionable than boiling. Either of these processes might be used with certain very-hard grains, such as kulthee (p. 170); but even in their case, the necessity of employing moist heat does not appear to be conclusively proved. The presence in oats of a cellulose dissolving ferment (p. 68), shows that the application of a temperature higher than 1260 F. impairs the feeding value of sound oats; although heat, as in kiln-drying, might improve the quality of musty oats by killing the mould germs. I have found when feeding horses on barley in India, that parching improves that grain as a food for these animals. By the process of drying, it enables the digestive fluids to more easily penetrate the grain. The application of artificial dry heat, as in parching and baking, acts to a certain extent like the natural process of ripening, in forming sugar. A good instance of this is afforded by the sweetening effect produced on sour apples by baking.

My experience in countries where the soaking in water of grain given as food for horses is generally adopted, has convinced me that this practice is hurtful to digestion; because it not only saturates the grain with water, but also facilitates the swallowing of the food before the grain has been fully masticated. Gram in India and maize in South Africa are the chief grains that are soaked in water before being given to horses. Both are best prepared by being broken and by being given dry with bran, chop, or, in the case of maize, with the cob cut up. Bruising is specially applicable to oats, as it increases the difficulty of swallowing this grain without thorough mastication, and by breaking its husk it exposes the interior of the grain to the full action of the digestive juices. Owing to the smoothness of the surface of almost all the grains given to horses, they can be much more easily swallowed without being properly masticated, when given whole, than when bruised; hence the advisability of this process. If the horse was in a state of nature, the covering of the grain would oblige him to chew the ear, cob, or pod before he could swallow its contents. There can be no question as to the advantage of bruising oats and other grain for old horses, and for those whose chewing powers are impaired. Colin, however, maintains that in ordinary cases the bruising of corn does not improve the digestibility of grain. Nevertheless we find that in the experiments from which he drew his conclusions, the period of mastication was 4 1/2 per cent. longer, and the amount of saliva secreted was 17 per cent. greater with bruised oats than with whole oats. I have found, especially in training racehorses, that horses do better on the former than on the latter food. I feel strengthened in this conclusion by the fact that when such animals are fed on bruised oats, less husk is found in their dung than when they are given whole oats. Leaving oats out of the question, there is no doubt that the crushing or coarse grinding of many kinds of grain - maize and barley, for instance - greatly improves their digestibility and wholesomeness.

Muntz (Recherches sur la Digestion des Fourrages) has proved by experiment, that when uncrushed oats are given by themselves, a certain percentage is passed out in an unchanged condition along with the dung; and that this loss of nutritious material can be almost entirely obviated by bruising. He also found that this loss, in the case of un-bruised oats, can be prevented to a great extent by mixing the oats with other forage, such as chop or bran. He observed that the digestibility of maize and beans was not injuriously affected, like oats, by the fact of their being given alone; probably because their husk is not so resistant as that of oats.

The breaking or grinding of grain should be strictly-limited to that which is sufficient to nullify the protective action of the husk; for the smaller the particles of the broken corn, the less will horses relish it, and probably the less saliva will be secreted.

With respect to the cutting up of hay and straw used for food, we know that chop mixed with corn increases the whole-someness of the grain, and is economical in checking waste. When hay is given in a quantity that cannot be usually eaten "at one go," it appears best to give it in the form of long hay, which a horse will not contaminate to nearly the same extent by breathing and slavering on it, as he would do with cut hay. Besides, the nature of long hay will make him take more time in mastication, than he would be forced to spend with chopped hay. We cannot, however, say that long hay is a natural food for horses; because hay is an artificial preparation of grass, and horses in a state of nature would rarely get grass as long as ordinary hay.

From practical experience in the feeding of horses on straw chop, cut in the ordinary way, and on straw, broken and bruised in the Eastern fashion (p. 154), I feel certain that a machine which would be capable of breaking and bruising straw in a manner similar to the latter method, would be a very useful addition to our stable appliances; for its employment would greatly enhance the value of the resulting chop, as a vehicle for the corn. I trust that some capable manufacturer of stable machinery will take this hint.