In the year 1839, this article was a good deal spoken of as an excellent food for horses. Mr. Ritchie, veterinary surgeon of Edinburgh, made some experiments with it, and detailed them in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. He tried it with only one horse. He gave daily three pounds of sago stirred into two gallons of boiling water; and this quantity was divided into three feeds. After a few days he found that this feeding made the horse sweat more at his work. He then gave the sago nearly dry, or just moistened, by adding to it about four ounces of water; and thus fed, the horse perspired no more than he had done upon oats and hay.

I have no doubt but sago might be used partially as a substitute for oats, and possibly it might, under certain circumstances, be used to the exclusion of other grain. But from my own experience of it on several horses, I found,

1. That no horse would eat it unmixed with other grain.

2. That very few would eat it raw, even when mixed with oats.

3. That none refused it when it was boiled with oats or beans.

4. That it is not profitable if it costs more than twelve shillings per cwt., while oats are twenty shillings per boll.