PRACTICAL HINTS ON STABLE MANAGEMENT IN INDTA. 241 
Barley .—If used at all for horses, barley should be selected of 
a pale or bright yellow colour, the kernels being sweet, dry, firm, 
and well filled with farina, thin skinned, free from dust, dirt, or 
extraneous seeds, and without any fungi or mould to be found on 
the grain, when broken between the teeth; it may be consumed 
either steeped, parched, parched and ground, or simply in a 
crushed state. A really good sample is rarely seen in this 
country, as far as my experience has shown. 
Maize .—Maize should be white or yellow (sometimes the 
grain has a reddish tinge), sweet, heavy, well-filled, hard, dry, 
free from insect-holes, dust, dirt, or other grains. It is given simply 
crushed, and that chiefly on account of the size of the grains. 
The best samples I have ever seen were grown in China. 
Bran. —Bran, when good, is most useful, and much to be pre¬ 
ferred before either gram or barley for consumption during the hot 
weather, as at that season the digestive powers of many horses 
are often totally inadequate to the task of assimilating these 
grains. It should be chosen free from smell, insects, dust, or 
chopped straw, with which it is so often adulterated. 
Ration .—We have now to determine the quantity to be given 
daily to each horse of whichever of these cereals we may elect 
to feed our horses upon, and should be guided in this matter by 
the size of the horse, the amount of work exacted from him, and 
by the time of year. The allowance of gram or barley for troop 
horses, and for horses in ordinary work, has been fixed by custom 
at from eight to ten pounds per horse daily, according to breed; 
that is, five seers for Walers and four seers for stud-bred horses. 
This ration is wisely modified regimentally during the hot season, 
by deducting a seer or more of gram, and substituting for it the 
same weight of bran. Some horses when in training can eat 
and digest a greater quantity than the usual allowance, and it is 
customary to increase the rate of feed for horses in low or poor 
condition. This, in my opinion, is a dietetic error, and one which 
I formerly fell into, but of late, from the evidence of others, 
combined with personal observation, have arrived at the con¬ 
clusion that I was radically wrong, for I feel sure that many 
horses remain thin, or do not throw up flesh or muscle, simply 
through the lack of power to digest the quantity of grain con¬ 
sumed by them at each feed; consequently this is not taken up or 
assimilated to meet the wants of the system (the supply being in 
excess of the demand), but passes out of the body again, some¬ 
times in a crude state, after causing, in many instances, a severe 
attack of colic or diarrhoea by the irritation it has occasioned by 
its presence in the alimentary canal. It may also provoke an 
attack of acute laminitis. 
Change in the character of the dung is occasionally the only 
