The chief articles which come under this heading, and which can be given to a horse with advantage, are carrots, parsnips, swedes, pumpkins, apples, pears, plums, and other sweet and succulent fruit. Although such roots and fruit can furnish but little energy to their consumer, they have a good effect on the system, possibly on account of their being richer in soda and poorer in potash than the other forms of fodder which horses consume. Hence, although roots and fruit cannot replace the hay and corn necessary for working horses, they are a very useful addition to equine diet. To avoid purging the horse, and unduly distending his stomach, we may accept 10 lb. as a maximum quantity of such food. Carrots are the only kind I have used to such a large extent, although I have employed all the others as dainties for horses. Parsnips are supposed to be the next best roots to carrots, about the merits of which I can fully endorse what Stewart said about them in the following extract from his Stable Economy: "Carrots also improve the state of the skin. They form a good substitute for grass, and an excellent alterative for horses out of condition. To sick and idle horses they render corn unnecessary. They are beneficial in all chronic diseases of the organs of breathing, and have a marked influence upon chronic cough and broken wind. They are serviceable in diseases of the skin. In combination with oats, they restore a worn-out horse much sooner than oats alone." An addition of 5 or 6 lb. of carrots to the daily food ration of ordinary working horses will almost always be of benefit; and 3 lb. a day will not be too much for racehorses, even in the highest state of training. It is safest to give carrots sliced longitudinally, so that they may not stick in the animal's gullet and thus choke him.

Horses greatly relish good, ripe eating apples. I have never found that they have any difficulty in breaking the stones of plains between their teeth. In South Africa pumpkins are often given to horses as "green meat." Horses eat sugar-cane with great relish, and apparently with benefit. If this variety of grass is given in long stalks, a horse is apt, when consuming a piece, to put a forefoot on one end of it, and to squeeze the juice out of the other end, by drawing the stalk between his front teeth, which will tend to become quickly worn down by the resulting friction with the flinty surface of the cane. The possibility of a horse practising this form of cribbing, can be prevented by cutting the canes into short pieces.

As before indicated, I do not think it advisable to give roots, tubers, and similar articles of fodder in a boiled state to horses. In some parts of the East, horses are fed to a considerable extent on dates, which have a comparatively high nutritive value.