s also available, and
the horses did nearly as well as before.

I would not maintain that similar results are everywhere obtainable.
The price of grains varies; the receipts from manure are everywhere
different; in some garrisons peas and beans are difficult to obtain;
the cost of transport also fluctuates. But all this is no reason why
we should not seize an advantage even if we cannot always retain it.
Even a few years of more and better food bring about an improvement in
the horses, which lasts for a considerable time, and every effort,
therefore, should be made to obtain these advantages offered by price
variations whenever it is possible to do so.

It is well to call attention to the fact that to accustom horses to
the most varied food--rye, barley, wheat, etc.--is part of their
indispensable training for War, where such foods are all they can
get, as the experience of our last War sufficiently demonstrated. To
this end it is necessary--and I wish particularly to insist upon this
point--that our Regimental Commanders should have the utmost latitude
of action within certain fixed limits, and should not be dependent on
the consideration of the Commissariat, with its innumerable
regulations and formal considerations. I consider the objection
sometimes urged against me that in the purchase of supplementary foods
by the Regimental Commander there would be an opening for fraud and
speculation on the part of under officials quite untenable, for a
proper system of audit and check could be quite easily devised.

The capacity of the Commander to manage affairs in a businesslike
manner can hardly be called in question, and his interest in the
matter would grow in proportion to the degree of freedom allowed to
him.

Next in importance to the question of food comes the preparation of
the horses for efforts of long duration. That this preparation must go
hand in hand with the food question is obvious, but apart from this
interdependence, it is not possible to keep horses always up to the
necessary standard of endurance; for this training not only throws
heavy strains on the muscles, joints, and sinews, but on the nervous
system of the animal, and in particular attacks the nerves of the
stomach if maintained too long. If one wishes to preserve one's
material, the horses must be allowed from time to time a thorough
rest, during which their feeding must enable them to put on the degree
of fat which is requisite for health.