18 STABLE MANAGEMENT. 



Black Gram (cooltee). 



In the Madras Presidency and Southern India 

 black gram is used, the Bengal white gram not 

 being grown there. This has to be boiled before use. 

 Military horses are fed on it, but it is said that it 

 makes them soft. I have, however, no personal 

 experience of black gram. 



Preparation of Food. 



In India it is the custom to damp the food before 

 it is given. It should not be saturated so as to turn 

 it into a sloppy paste, but just damped sufficiently 

 to make the particles stick together. Grooms 

 (syces) generally deal out each feed into a bucket 

 dry from the corn-bin, and then damp it; but a 

 better plan is to weigh out the whole of the amount 

 required for all the horses, and put it into a wide- 

 mouthed earthen bowl called a "naund," that can 

 be purchased for a few pence, or a box, such as an 

 old wine case, and damp the whole amount together, 

 then portioning it out for each animal. The reason 

 of this is that, if the grain is damped in the buckets, 

 they are at once taken away, and, the probabilities 

 are, never cleaned ; but if they have to be brought 

 forward for each feed to be put into them, and the 

 owner takes the trouble now and again to inspect 



