Among Horses in India. 25 



only in small quantities daily, so that there is no chance of 

 making real hay from it. 



Eakhs. 



At a few stations there are large tracts of jungle-land set 

 apart by Government for the purpose of supplying the troop 

 horses with grass. They are called rakhs in Bengal. 

 Whenever a regiment or battery is fortunate enough to be 

 at such a place, a supply of good hay ought to be made every 

 year. It is wanted when the grass-cutters are kept at home 

 by heavy rain, and still more in that part of the hot season 

 before the rains commence, when the grass remaining on the 

 land is so burnt by the sun that it contains scarcely any 

 nourishment, and is particularly liable to cause colic and 

 other abdominal disease. 



In the districts of Bengal south of the Punjab there is 

 sometimes a difficulty in making first-class hay, owing to the 

 rainy season being so protracted that it is not over before the 

 mass of the crop has gone out of bloom. The utmost that 

 can then be done is to cure it while the stalks are green and 

 before the seeds are mature. There wiU even then probably 

 be some of the late kinds of grass still blooming. 



In this way, if advantage be taken of occasional dry days, 

 hay can be made that is decidedly better, as I have proved 

 by actual experience, than most of that which is given by 

 contractors to troop horses in England. 



At the latter end of the rainy season there are usually 

 intervals of fine weather every few days. It is therefore 

 often a good plan to begin cutting the grass after two or 

 three successive days of rain before it has stopped, as there 

 will very likely be sunshine about the fourth or fifth day. 



The sun being very hot, the hay is made in far less time 

 than in England. In the Punjab, when not interrupted by 

 rain, grass can be cut on one day and stacked on the after- 

 noon of the next. 



If the weather will permit, the time for making hay should 

 be chosen when the grass which is both most plentiful and 

 also best for making forage is in bloom. 



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