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: Milk-and-Eggs Diet For Beattie Stock Rhode Island Owner Hopes To Raise Champion Horses With Rich Feeding Program PAWTUCKET, R. I., May 26. — Its a well-known fact that race horses are petted and "babied" by their owners and trainers, and obviously so for their intrinsic value, if not for sentimental reasons. At Narra-gansett Park, however, there are nine two-year -old thoroughbreds who have been literally and figuratively babied from their birth. They have been brought up on a diet consisting mainly of fresh milk and raw eggs! This revolutionary theory of producing top quality racing steeds is the brain-child of W. J. "Jim" Beattie, prominent Rhode Island manufacturer, whose first love, however, is breeding and racing thoroughbreds. It harks back to the days when he was a lad in England and remembered foals and . racing dogs on the farms near where he lived being given milk as part of their daily ration. It always has been his ambition to produce a really top-grade horse, the burning desire of every true lover of thoroughbreds, but despite his efforts, covering some 15 years of constant trying, never quite attained the mark for which he is shooting. His locally bred horses fell short of the goal, both in size, as well as speed, and two years ago he decided upon his present tactics. "Jim" Beattie, as he is popularly known in racing circles, makes his home in Washington, R. I., where he has a large establishment, and he also has four other farms, two in West Warwick, one at Narragansett Pier and one in Connecticut. At the Washington farm he has a herd of 20 purebred Holstein cows and a flock of 300 hens, and these provide the main sources of the youngsters diet. Produces Own Eggs and Milk He commenced feeding the weanlings quantities of milk and raw eggs, continuing on through the yearling stage, increasing the amounts as they grew older and filled out. His herd of cows supplies 80 or more gallons of milk per day and all not consumed by the farm help and house, plus uncounted dozens of eggs, are mixed with the regular feedings and given separately to the growing steeds. To say that they enjoy it is sheer understatement. They fairly revel in it. Just the sound of those cans and pails rattling around outside their stalls starts a crescendo of whinnying and neighing. Incidentally, the milk tests 3.9 in butterfat content as against the minimum of 3.5 demanded by law. Of course they get the customary hay, oats, bran, flaxseed mela, alfalfa, as well as vitamin feeds. They get all the hay they want to eat, are even bedded down in hay, but their oats and mashes are crushed in milk, with any where from two to six eggs, shells and all, mixed in. On top of that each of the two-year-olds gets between 12 and 15 quarts of milk daily. Perhaps Beattie has something in this radical diet for producing a superior quality of horseflesh. One thing is apparent with half an eye. In that group of nine at Gansett are some of the biggest, strongest-looking animals for their age ever to be seen in these parts. In fact, most of them look as though they were three-year-olds. Their speed, of course, is conjectural, for they havent been given the acid test of racing competition. But they have every appearance in shape and conformation of possessing topnotch qualities. The high calcium content of their diet apparently has served to make them big-boned, strong and they should have plenty of stamina.
