hay should also be fed, even though a certain
quantity of hay or straw is cut and fed mixed with grain.

One objection to feeding cut hay mixed with ground or crushed grains,
and wetted, must not be overlooked during the hot months. Such feed is
liable to undergo fermentation if not fed directly after it is mixed;
even the mixing trough, unless frequently scalded and cleaned, becomes
sour and enough of its scrapings are given with the feed to produce
flatulent (wind) colic. A small quantity of salt should always be mixed
with such feed. Bad hay should never be cut simply because it insures a
greater consumption of it; bad feeds are dear at any price, and should
never be fed.

The advantage of boiling roots has been mentioned. Not only does this
render them less liable to produce digestive disorders, but it also
makes them clean. Boiling or steaming grains is to be recommended when
the teeth are poor, or when the digestive organs are weak.

DISEASES OF THE TEETH.

_Dentition._--This covers the period during which the young horse is
cutting his teeth--from birth to the age of 5 years. With the horse more
difficulty is experienced in cutting the second or permanent teeth than
with the first or milk teeth. There is a tendency among farmers and many
veterinarians to pay too little attention to the teeth of young horses.
Percivall relates an instance illustrative of this that is best told in
his own words:

I was requested to give my opinion concerning a horse, then in
his fifth year, who had fed so sparingly for the last
fortnight, and so rapidly declined in condition in consequence,
that his owner, a veterinary surgeon, was under no light
apprehensions about his life. He had himself examined his mouth
without having discovered any defect or disease, though another
veterinary surgeon was of opinion that the difficulty or
inability manifested in mastication, and the consequent
cudding, arose from preternatural bluntness of the surfaces of
the molar teeth, which were, in consequence, filed, but without
beneficial result. It was after this that I saw the horse, and
I confess I was, at my first examination, quite as much at a
loss to offer any satisfactory interpretation as others had
been. While meditating, however, after my inspection, on the
apparently extraordinary nature of the case, it struck me that
I had not seen the tusks. I went ba