The articles usually boiled are turnips, potatoes, grain of all kinds, beans, and peas. It is not likely that boiled food has exactly the same properties as that which is raw. To the eye and to the taste it is different, and probably it is different to the stomach also. It may yield more nutriment; it may yield less; possibly it may furnish nutriment of a different kind, or, without any alteration in the quantity or quality of the nutriment, the food may be more or less rapidly or easily digested : but there is no positive proof, no well-conducted experiments, to decide these conjectures It is known, however, that turnips and potatoes are more digestible when boiled than when raw. They are not so liable to produce colic, a disease arising from fermentation of that food over which the stomach has little power. Boiled grain seems to assimilate very quickly with the living solids and fluids. It restores vigor more rapidly than raw grain; but that vigor does not last so long. Whatever be the changes produced upon the food by boiling, it appears probable that some articles are more improved than others, and that a few are better in the raw state.

Agricultural and coach horses generally receive one feed of boiled food every day during about four months of the year, commencing at the end of autumn. Some horses get it all the year, except when grass is to be had. This boiled food is composed of several articles. Barley, beans, and turnips, form a mixture in common use, to which chaff, hay-seed, and perhaps bran, may be added. Oats often supply the place of barley; and potatoes that of turnips. Wheat is not a great favorite; but it is sometimes given for barley. The mixture is given warm, and is generally the last feed. For all hard-working horses this is a good system. They are fond of food thus prepared and mixed. They eat more of it. They always look better, have a finer skin, carry more flesh, and perform their work with less fatigue than when fed in the ordinary way upon raw oats and beans. In cold wet weather the warm boiled food is particularly beneficial. It makes the horse comfortable, and sets him soon to rest.

I believe that much of the good ascribed to boiled food may be attributed to its warmth. [Cooking renders it more digestible, and it is more easily assimilated. The absorbing vessels are thus enabled more readily and fully to act. Animal heat is necessary for digestion; therefore cooking renders food more nutritious.] No horse likes it when cold, many refuse it, and most of them prefer the raw article to that which has been boiled and become cold. The heat which boiled food should contain is conveyed into the system, or, at least, it saves the expense of producing all the heat which cold food takes from the system.

There are two other circumstances which probably contribute a good deal to improve the horse's condition. The boiled food is rarely composed of the same articles. If oats and beans be given during the day, and barley, or barley and oats at night, the horse has the advantage of a mixed diet which is always better than that into which only one or two articles enter. The other circumstance I allude to is an increased consumption of food. The horse eats a larger quantity of this boiled food, partly because it is boiled, and partly because it contains articles to which he is less accustomed, and which are therefore more agreeable, and because he likes variety. •

It is not usual to give boiled food to working horses oftener than once a day. Slow, and even fast-workers do, however, sometimes get it twice or thrice a day. Heavy draught-horses may have it thus often without disadvantage. But it is complained that those employed at fast-work, and on long journeys, become soft when they get boiled food so frequently. They perspire a great deal; their vigor is not lasting; they are sooner exhausted than horses that receive less boiled and more raw food. Whether this be true or not, the approach of hot weather always produces a dislike for boiled food. The horses, particularly fast horses, may take one feed, but few are fond of more. In coaching-stables, the boiling is discontinued as the weather becomes warm. It is not discarded all at once. Instead of giving boiled food every night, it is given only thrice a week; after a while, only once a week, and ultimately not at all. The practice commences in the same way, about the end of autumn.

In boiling grain, care must be taken to prevent it from adhering to the bottom of the pot, where it gets burned, and becomes nauseous. It must be often stirred. As the water evaporates, more should be added. Never let the liquor boil over. It contains a great deal of nutriment, extracted from the food. I often see it running to waste, the vessel being too small, or the attendant careless. Give the grain plenty of water, more than it will take up, and either give the liquor as a drink, or add chaff or bran to imbibe it.

All the kinds of food are generally over-boiled. The horse dislikes slops. His food should be firm, hard enough to give the teeth some employment. Neither roots nor grain should be boiled to a jelly. They should be a little hard at the heart. The skin of grain and pulse, however, should be burst. When ready the mass is emptied into a cooler, which is just a tub or trough, sometimes placed on wheels. In this, other articles, such as chaff, bran, and meal, which do not require boiling, are added, and the whole incorporated into an equal mass.

Oats require more boiling than beans, beans more than bar ley, carrots and turnips more than potatoes. To have none overdone, the articles which require the most should be put on some time before the others.

There are some other things connected with boiling which I have not been able to learn. It would be well to know how much each article gains or loses in weight and in bulk, and in what time it may be sufficiently boiled. A few simple and not costly experiments would decide these, and they may be made by any person who has time to perform them, The following table taken from the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, shows only the increase of bulk which certain grains suffer in boiling : -