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OATS BEST FOR THE THOROUGHBRED. The value of ensilage for horses is discussed in many of the farm journals, but the trainers of race horses, trotters and runners . are not im -pressed by the arguments, writes the veteran Hamilton Busbey in The American Horsebreeder. The grain which sustains vitality in the severest of physical tests is oats. It is less heating than corn, and this is a point not to be overlooked in condensed effort. The horse which covers a mile in the shortest space of time is recognized ay the champion of his class. When John Harper, in 1871, brought Longfellow from Kentucky to the Atlantic seaboard to run against such horses as Hurry Bassett, Helmbold and Preakness, lie carried with him corn in the ear, and this was a part of the daily ration of the great son of Leamington and Nantina. by Browners Eclipse. Harper was an old-fashioned farmer, and he had experimented with corn in liquid and other shapes, and knew its evil. The eastern trainers stuck to their oats, but the stride of Longfellow was almost invincible. He stood nearly seventeen hands, and the smaller and shorter gaited horses had to put on extra steam to keep pace with him. Harry Basset finally beat him for the Saratoga Cup. two and one-fourth miles, in 3:59. the fastest race of its kind of that date. Uncle John then scratched his head and conceded the value of oats. One modern writer contends that the corn and alfalfa ration contains the largest amount of nutriment. This ration may serve the slow farm horse, but not the race horse, whose energy is crowded into a time space measured by seconds, not by hours. — Toronto Globe.
