During late years, maize has steadily increased in favour among English and Continental owners as a food for horses, in which respect it certainly comes next to oats as regards value. Formerly it was held in low repute in Europe, and the results of experiments conducted on a large scale in France and Austria appeared to prove, that although horses like maize, digest it, and.on it get fat and acquire glossy coats, they show a marked deficiency in vigour, speed, and stamina, as compared to animals fed on oats. Also, Professor Bruchmuller, who conducted a six months' trial of feeding 5,200 horses partly on maize, came to the conclusion that it can be used to advantage only with horses which are not required to move out of a walk. Against this we have the fact that in South Africa the mail coach horses, which have to do ten to twelve mile stages over bad ground at a sharp trot or gallop, go through their work well, and keep in good condition on nothing but maize (about 18 lbs.) and oat chop or straw chop (about 5 lbs.) with an occasional feed of grass on the veldt. As I have often sat behind them, I can vouch for the good effect maize has on their mettle. "The great Paris Omnibus Company has tried replacing half the oats usually provided for the horses by crushed maize (including the cobs) with most excellent results. The cobs provide the cellulose lacking in the maize, and the two together are equivalent in composition and feeding value to oats. The New York Omnibus Company give each of their horses 14 lbs. of maize a day; while the Berlin Tramways Company supplement 3 lbs. of oats with 15 lbs. of maize per horse per day, with most satisfactory results. Maize has proved an excellent food for horses doing hard and regular work at a moderate pace, but is less suited for hunters or light hacks" (Farm Foods). The writer of the above extract (E. von Wolff) is not quite correct in saying that the grain and cob of maize, when combined, are equal in composition to oats; because oats are richer than this mixture is in mineral matter and fat. Passing over this slight exaggeration, we have the fact that the London Road Car Company's horses, which show better condition than the horses of any other Metropolitan omnibus company, are fed almost entirely on maize and hay, as we shall see later on. At present, in England and on the Continent, hundreds of thousands of horses which are fed principally on maize, are worked in busses, trams, vans and heavy carts, and leave nothing to be desired as to the manner in which they perform their labour. The merits of maize have long been recognised in America, from which country we have adopted it as a food for man and beast.

The contradictory nature of the foregoing results may, I think, be explained by the fact that the feeding value of maize is greatly affected by the manner in which this grain is presented to the horse to eat. Its undue hardness and its deficiency in woody fibre are the two weak points about maize which should be specially provided for, and which can be best avoided by grinding the grain and the cob together (see preceding paragraph). Henry tells us that "about one-fifth the weight of well-dried corn of the better varieties consists of cob." When the cob cannot be utilised along with the grain, the maize should be crushed or coarsely ground, and mixed with bran or chop. "Corn meal alone is a sodden substance in the animal's stomach, and should be diluted or extended with something of light character. Bran serves well for this purpose, because of its lightness and cooling effect, as well as the protein (nitrogenous matter) and mineral matter it furnishes" (Henry). As South African chaff consists of bruised and broken-up straw, it forms an admirable vehicle for maize, the particles of which it keeps separate, and by its softness it allows the animal to thoroughly masticate them, whether the grain be broken or whole. Under ordinary conditions, if maize be given whole, it is apt by its hardness to make the horse's mouth sore, and when his mouth is in that state he is inclined to swallow the grain without chewing it, in which case it will be liable to give rise to digestive disturbance.

While fully granting the value of maize as a food for ordinary working horses, I think we would do well to restrict it to their use. The experience of owners and trainers in America and South Africa, in both of which countries maize is largely employed in the feeding of common horses, is that oats are much the better grain of the two for racehorses, match trotters, and animals of the hunter class. As I have already pointed out, it is unsuitable to young horses, owing to its poverty in mineral matter.