A SUITABLE RATION 61 



A foodstuff of recent introduction in this country is 

 gram. It has long been a staple food for horses in 

 India, and in composition it much resembles the ordinary 

 white pea. Exact experiments are wanting with regard 

 to its digestibility, but assuming this to be somewhat 

 similar to that of peas, gram might well be used as a highly 

 nitrogenous concentrated food to mix with foods wanting 

 in proteins. At the present time it is being used, with 

 good results, in amounts up to 4 or 5 lbs. daily, as a 

 substitute for beans. 



Bran as a food is dear, when tested by its cost in 

 relation to nutritive value alone (see Table IV, p. 73), 

 but it has very valuable properties of use in feeding 

 sick or resting horses, and for this reason and under 

 these circumstances it is an economical and necessary 

 purchase. The flakes of bran exert a slightly irritant 

 mechanical effect on the intestinal mucous membrane, 

 and this accounts for the laxative properties of bran- 

 mashes. It contains a fairly high percentage of salts, 

 especially phosphates, and the excessive use of bran has 

 often been thought to be associated with the formation 

 of intestinal calculus (stone). As part of the daily 

 ration, bran has no great advantages, and its cost per 

 nutritive unit is so high that it must be considered too 

 expensive for general use. 



Barley as a food for working horses is not very 

 commonly used. There has, in fact, been a good deal of 

 prejudice against the use of barley, but numerous experi- 

 ments,* and, more recently, practical experience of its 

 use in a mixture of grains, have proved that it can be 

 safely fed with good results whenever its market price 



* See " Note on the Use of Barley as Horse Food," by John 

 Malcolm, F.K.C.V.S., Birmingham, Journal of Comparative 

 Pathology, vol. ix., p. 203. 



