Food. 3\5 



Horse ; the standard for the cavalry of the East India Company 

 beinj^ fourteen and a half hands, and there is often considerable dif- 

 ficulty in procuring: a sufficient number at that standard. 



I have always been an advocate for cutting hay and straw, and 

 biniising' corn, for cattle of every description, and am convinced, 

 that any man who has paid attention to the subject, will soon see the 

 advantage that must result from the adoption of that practice. 



My attention was particularly called to this subject by a circum- 

 stance which came under my notice when with the cavalry under 

 Lord Lake, on the western banks of the Junna, in 1804. Channa, 

 the usual food for the cavalry, being scantily supplied. Lord Lake 

 ordered the horses to be fed with equal parts of channa and barleyj 

 bruised and steeped in the usual way, but from the irregularity of 

 the ^ize of the barley and channa, and inattention on the part of 

 those whose duty it was to see it prepared, the greater part of the 

 barley was given entire, and passed through the stomach and intes- 

 tines of the horses^ apparently little, if at all, impaired in its nutri- 

 tive quality. 



The scarcity of grain which prevailed at that time, induced many 

 thousands to flock to the British camp in search of food, and I daily 

 witnessed, for weeks together, many hundreds of all ages and sexes 

 coming into the lines of our cavalry, and anxiously collecting and 

 carrying away thie excrement as it fell from the Horses ; this they ex- 

 posed for a few hours to the sun, and by rubbing and sifting it, pro- 

 cured a large supply of good food." 



This detail, which is on some accounts afflicting to humanity, will 

 probably go further in convincing the incredulous upon this subject, 

 than the roost ingenious theory, or even volumes of well-atte«ted 



