Many of these horses are fed in the old way. In winter they receive oats, beans, bran, and hay; in summer, oats, beans, hay, and grass, all given without preparation, and only three times a day. But a new mode has been much adopted by the owners of nearly all the large studs. The food consists of more articles; it is often prepared with a degree of care that in the good old times would have been deemed preposterously troublesome; the horses are fed oftener, and articles are used which many still deem unfit for horses, and even poisonous.

Mr. Lyon of Glasgow was the first to introduce the hay-cutting system into the west of Scotland. It has been practised in his establishment for fifteen years back. For a long while he bruised the oats and split the beans, but now both are given entire. The chaff, without a portion of which grain is rarely given, ensures the mastication of these articles.

The ordinary feeding consists of oats, beans, and hay; but barley is often given both raw and boiled. Every horse receives about six or seven pounds of rack hay at night. There are five feeding hours; the first at six, the others at nine, one, five, and eight. At each time the horse receives one half-peck of a mixture which usually contains 5 bushels of oats, one of beans, and 6 of chaff. The last is in heaped measure. In five feeds of this mixture, there are one peck and a quarter of grain, and as much chaff. The daily allowance will therefore be, of fodder, cut and uncut, about 9 or 10 pounds, and of grain about 13 or 14 pounds. The quantity, however, is not precisely limited. Some horses will eat less, and others more. They get what they will take, the feeder being careful not to give more at one time than the horse will eat.

In winter the horses get boiled food every night, It is composed of barley and beans, to which a few turnips are sometimes added. Three measures of barley and one of beans go over as many horses as four of oats and one of beans. Some hay chaff is added, and this mixture forms the fifth feed. Carrots are given raw during the day; but when considerably dearer than turnips, turnips supply their place. Grass is sometimes given in summer, but not generally. A certain quantity is taken in every morning for the sick, the feeble, and the lame; if not all consumed by these, the remainder is given to others.

When there is neither grass, carrots, nor any boiled food, the horses receive a large warm mash of bran on Saturday night. They work none on Sunday. Salt is not generally used; never except, for the lick or the staling-evil, and then a lump of rock-salt is placed in the manger.

Barley is sometimes given raw. The mixture then consists of oats six bushels, of beans three, of barley three, and of chaff six. The horses are fed the same number of times, and from the same measure. Thi3 mixture is most esteemed when the work is more than usually laborious.

Wheat is sometimes used; six bushels of chaff, six of oats, three of beans, and three of wheat, form the wheat mixture, which is given in the same way as the others.

Mr. Lyon has tried meal-seeds. The feeding contained eight bushels of chaff, six of oats, four of barley, four of beans, and three of meal-seeds. In this mixture, there is a larger proportion of grain; but the work was severe, for there were few spare horses.

In dear hay seasons Mr. Lyon has given straw chaff, but he thinks it is not profitable while good hay is to be obtained at a moderate price. The hay-seed is all sold. The horses are always in excellent condition. Their legs are never washed without permission. They are watered four or five times a day. They stand always on litter, except on working days, when the litter is entirely taken from the stall, until the horse returns from work. Much straw is saved by this arrangement, but horses that will not urinate on the bare stones may be sent to the road with a full bladder. From this, however, I have not observed any injury. The foreman resides in the stable-yard. He is authorized to hire and discharge strappers. The stud is visited every morning by a veterinary surgeon, and a stable, containing three loose boxes, is set apart for sick and lame horses.

Mr. Walker of Glasgow gives his stage-coach horses five feeds per day. They are fed at six, nine, twelve, four, and half-past six, or at seven. In winter the first four feeds consist of oats and beans, which are given by measure. Eleven of the feeds form one imperial bushel. The quantity of beans varies according to the condition of the horses, and the quality of the oats. Sometimes less than a fourth of the feed is beans; at other times the oats and beans are in equal proportions. The last feed is boiled, and generally composed of barley three, and beans two. Straw or hay chaff, and sometimes turnips are added. Of the beans and barley mixed forty feeds go as far as fifty of the oat and bean mixture. The fodder, clover, and rye-grass hay, is given in the racks without limitation. Some hay, and occasionally straw, is cut into chaff for mixing with the grain, which is not bruised. In winter, delicate horses get carrots. As summer approaches, the boiled food is given up. For a while it is given every other night, then twice a week, then once, and at last it is abandoned altogether. In autumn it is introduced in the same gradual manner; grass is very little used.

It is consumed chiefly by the defective or spare horses, who get a little only while it is good.

Although the grain is given at regular hours, and in measured quantities, the horses receive as much as they will eat. Some do not consume their allowance, and that which is left is given to others of keener appetite, or put into the boiler, and less is given out at the next feeding hour. All the horses have full work, many of them for part of the year running sixteen miles for six days a week at eight miles per hour in two stages. The stables are good, and the stud is visited by a veterinarian every morning. The horses always stand on litter Their legs are not washed in cold weather. In hot summers the horses are bathed all over after work.

The late Mr. Peter Mein of Glasgow tried several modes of feeding. In winter he employed hay, and oat or wheat-straw, as fodder; oats, beans, barley, wheat, and turnips, as grain. The fodder was all cut, the raw grain all bruised, the beans were given whole; the wheat, barley, and turnips, were usually boiled.

The horses were fed eight times every day; the first feed was given at five in the morning, the last at ten in the evening. The daily allowance to each horse used to be eight pounds of fodder, and sixteen of grain. The fodder was one half straw, another half hay; the grain, three fourths oats, and one fourth beans. They were always mixed, neither grain nor fodder being given alone. During cold weather, one feed of this mixture was withheld, and replaced by an equal quantity of boiled Red, which consisted of beans, barley, and chaff; Swedish turnips were also used, but no carrots nor any bran, except to sick horses. The cooked food was given as the first after work; horses that seemed very fond of it got another at night. In general, each horse got only one ration of boiled food in the twenty-four hours. Some grass was used in summer; while young it was given alone; as it got old, hard, and dry, it was cut and mixed with the chaff and grain. When old and not cut, the horses wasted much of it.

Cutting prevent ed all waste.

In the winter of 1836, the horses got no hay. Mr. Mein's stock was exhausted by the 20th of September, and at that time hay was both dear and bad. He used straw instead of hay, from the 20th of September till the 15th of May. Each horse got eight pounds, with sixteen pounds of grain, prepared and served in the same way as the hay. The allowance of turnips was rather larger. After May, good straw could not easily be procured, and from that time to July, 1837, one half of the fodder was given in hay.

Mr. Mein tried raw wheat. He gave three pounds per day to each horse, deducting three pounds of oats. The horses worked and looked as well as usual, but their bowels seemed to be out of order, for the dung was pale, clay-like, and fetid. There was no other objection to the wheat.

Mr. Croall of Edinburgh gives oats, beans, hay, grass, and carrots. The hay is all cut, and given along with the grain; the oats are bruised, and the beans split or broken fresh every day. The winter allowance of grain is 14 pounds per day. The beans are one to three of the oats, by weight. In summer only twelve pounds are given.