240 PRACTICAL HINTS ON STABLE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA* 
duce the enormously fat condition met with occasionally amongst 
native horses, and which fills the eye of the Oriental, whether it 
exist in man or animal. We use linseed for this purpose, and 
also as a soft and easily digestible diet for sick horses. 
Of the three grains—gram, barley, and Indian corn—each has 
its advocates, and each is declared by one or other to be injurious 
to the horses fed on it. The observations of many years has 
taught me, that while gram is highly indigestible, barley is so in 
a still greater degree, and is on that account of the least value of 
either of the three as a food for horses, and that sound well- 
grown maze is one of the most profitable of the seeds which are 
used as diet for horses, cows, sheep, or pigs. 
That ill-effects follow the feeding of horses on barley I am 
convinced, for I have witnessed outbreaks amongst them of 
troublesome and intractable diseases of the skin with violent 
attacks of colic, and numerous simultaneous cases of acute lami- 
nitis, the effects of indigestion caused solely by the use of this 
grain as the staple commodity of their food ; while, on the other 
hand, I have seen the horses of two batteries of Royal Artillery 
(private horses also) fed on Indian corn with the most gratifying 
effect, as it increased the muscular development in a very marked 
degree, and made them, in stable language, as fresh as paint/'’ 
Prom this I hold that, notwithstanding the general prejudice in 
favour of the oat, maze ranks second to none as a stable viand. 
Gram. —Gram, when good, has a light yellowish brown 
colour, which darkens with age. The grain should be firm, 
plump, free from black grains, dust, dirt, foreign seeds, or worm- 
holes. It is said that the gram which is harvested in March 
will not be fit for consumption till the rainy season, and again, 
it should not be kept too long. It is crushed usually, but this 
is unnecessary, nor should it be wetted before being given to the 
horse. With reference to the practice of crushing the gram in 
order to prepare it as food for the horse, it appears to me that 
the benefit, if any there be, arising from this process, is reaped 
by those who crush it, for the grain is small, and on in¬ 
specting the natural mill 55 possessed by the horse, one is 
struck by the power of its machinery, and fails to see what ad¬ 
vantage can possibly accrue to him by the mashing of his pro- 
vender, for in his case nature has certainly made ample provision 
for the bruising and trituration of his food. Again, the custom 
of soaking the grain has ever seemed to me to be useless, since 
he is gifted with active salivary glands, the secretions from which 
are ample to moisten it sufficiently during mastication for the 
primary processes of digestion, while the grain loses some of its 
nutritious qualities by being steeped in water, and if soaked too 
long it turns sour and becomes highly deleterious. 
