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.
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 gram and rice, although at first some of them refused it. In Japan rice is the only grain horses get, and the pack ponies of that country are hardy beasts, and appear to work well on it. If the rice can be crushed, it is all the better; and in Bengal and Assam there is no difficulty in getting this done, as it is the food of the people, and they grind it for their own use.
The various millets, known in South Africa as "Kaffir-corn," are not often used in India as horse food, but in the Cape it sometimes is. In India the millet is a summer crop harvested in the autumn. The seeds are small, and of a dark or greyish colour. It requires to be crushed before use, as the husk is very hard.
The various species of pulse grains enter largely into the food of the natives of India. Two, known as "mung" and "mote," or "moat," are excellent for getting flesh on thin, debilitated animals. They are both small oblong seeds of an olive green colour, with a very hard husk, and can be obtained in any bazaar. I prefer the mote to the mung. They both require to be well boiled to the consistency of a jelly before use, and then being well mixed in with the food, about a pound in weight of the raw seed being enough for each feed, so that the horse gets three pounds daily, a corresponding quantity of the other grain being withdrawn. I have seen most excellent results in weak animals recovering from a debilitating illness from its use, but great care must be taken that it is boiled properly.