feed is offered to them
they devour it ravenously. There are in South Africa and America a number
of varieties of maize, but in India I only know of two sorts, in one of
which the seeds are white and the other yellow, or a deep red colour. I
don't think that there is much difference in them as far as horse food
goes, but each individual grain should be plump, and fill out the husk
well; they should be free from weevils, worms, or the marks of attacks
from rats and mice. The husk should be well filled out, and have a
shining, pearl-like, glistening appearance, and when let fall on a stone
or other hard substance give off a metallic sound. When broken open, the
grain inside should be of a pure white colour, and of a pleasant, mealy
smell, like fresh flour. If it is discoloured, it denotes that it has been
wet and fermented. Maize can be crushed by most grain-crushing machines,
also in the native mill (chuckie) if the stones are properly set; but both
in South Africa and India the natives pound it in a large wooden mortar
made out of the trunk of a tree.

Wheat (_ghehun_).

Although it is not to be recommended as a food, still I have seen wheat
used when no other grain could be obtained, and it was a choice of it or
nothing at all; and in parts of Australia, and, I believe, America, it is
regularly used as a horse food. It is commonly supposed that wheat is
almost a rank poison to horses, and will cause fever in the feet; and no
doubt with stabled animals in England it will do so, especially as the
majority of cases of this nature are from accidents--horses getting loose
and gorging themselves with wheat during the night, or when unobserved.
With animals standing out in the open and working hard, as they do in
India and the colonies, it is not so dangerous. I should not suddenly
change a horse's feed from oats or gram to a full ration of wheat; but
when nothing else can be got, it can be given in a small quantity without
much fear of danger; but as soon as any other grain could be obtained, it
should be used.

Rice (_dhan_).

In Eastern Bengal and Assam horses are fed on unhusked rice and will do
well on it. During the expedition into the Lushai Hills in 1879-80, in
many places nothing else could be got to feed the transport mules on. Gram
is not grown in that part of the country, and what little there is has to
be imported, and is at a prohibitive price. I found that animals did well
enough on an equal mixture of