Among Horses in India. 31 



but some of the grains are pretty sure to be coated with 

 saliva and swallowed whole, and eating them uncrushed 

 must be hard work for the teeth. 



Mr. r. F. Collins, late P.V.S. in India, speaks highly of the 

 system of giving gram uncrushed, but soaked in water for 

 some hours until soft. When treated in this way it does not 

 ferment like ground gram, but undergoes the same change as 

 when in the earliest stage of germination, the starchy matter 

 being partly converted into sugar. 



Baeley. 



Barley, called in Hindustani jai, forms a large proportion 

 of the grain given to horses in the northerly parts of the 

 Bengal Presidency, and especially in the Punjab. It should 

 never be given unless crushed or ground after having been 

 first parched. It is then very excellent food. The ordinary 

 hand-mills of India are not capable of grinding it properly 

 when unparched, and a considerable portion of the grains 

 pass through them unbroken. Mr. Hurford, who was P.V.S. 

 in India some years ago, stated in his official correspondence 

 that hand-mills half as heavy again as those in ordinary use, 

 and cut with a sharper surface, would grind barley properly ; 

 but miUs of this kind are not common, and it is doubtful 

 if they could easily be procured except in certain districts. 

 It is usually given unparched, and the dung then contain 

 large quantities of whole grains which have passed through 

 the mill, or of the whole husks of those which were merely 

 flattened in the English oat-crusher. These irritate the 

 digestive organs to such a degree that they are liable either 

 to cause frequent attacks of colic or to greatly aggravate that 

 itchiness of the skin with which numbers of horses are 

 troubled every hot season. 



When the barley is properly parched neither of these results 

 ensues. The hand-miU or the oat-crusher readily breaks the 

 husks into powder, so that they do not cause any irritation, 

 and the starch granules being burst by the heat are rendered 

 easily digestible. 



Parching is done in every bazaar by putting the grain into 



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