it would appear that grazing land as contrasted with tilled land has relatively little influence on numbers. In the closely settled districts, the total number of ordinary cattle would appear to be primarily determined by the number of animals needed for work on the land.

In the case of buffaloes, the local demand for milk and ghi and the prosperity or poverty of the cultivators are the main factors affecting the numbers of females. Where, owing to unusually adverse conditions, there is a shortage of bullocks, the she-buffalo may be required to supplement the progeny of the starved and infertile cow, and there may be a considerable use of male buffaloes on the land.

CATTLE POPULATION

166. These statistical notes on Indian cattle may be supplemented by references to the cattle population of two other OF INDIA, HOLLAND countries, Holland and Egypt, which some of us AND EGYPT. visited in the course of our enquiry. We choose Holland because it possesses the largest number of cattle in relation to the size of the country. In Egypt, the number of cattle is very small. Except for the large place which cattle take in the life and economic position of the two countries, there is little in common between Holland and India. On the other hand, the conditions in Egypt and in certain provinces of India are very similar.

The figures given below compare the number of cattle maintained per 100 acres of net sown area in India, where there are extensive fallows, and per 100 cultivated acres in Holland and Egypt where fallows are of small account. In the two eastern countries, buffaloes as well as ordinary cattle are included.

In Holland, horses, and, in Egypt, donkeys are largely used in agriculture. Full-grown Dutch cattle may on the average weigh twice as much as Indian, and Dutch cows may give anything from five to ten times as much milk as Indian cows. In Egypt, half the cattle consist of she-buffaloes. Ordinary cattle are probably, on the average, somewhat larger in size than those of India. From these figures, the conclusion may be drawn that, in whatever respect Indian cattle may be lacking, they do not lack numbers. Conditions in Holland and India are so different that no further analysis of the cattle position in these two countries need be attempted. The general conditions under which agriculture is carried on in Egypt and parts of India are, however, so similar that the clue given by the crude comparison made above is worth following up. The disparity between the Indian and Egyptian figures for cattle is, indeed, greater than is suggested above for a very much larger percentage of Egyptian, than of Indian, land is cropped more than once, and intensive cropping increases the cattle power required to till the land.

COMPARISON

AND

OF

GHARBIEH

(LOWER EGYPT).

167. A statistical comparison will best serve our immediate purpose if, instead of comparing the figures for Egypt and British India, we contrast the livestock situation LYALLPUR (PUNJAB) in two areas in the respective countries in which the general agricultural position presents a strong resemblance. Moreover, while at the moment primarily interested in cattle, we cannot separate these from other animals maintained and used on the land. Sheep and, to a small extent, goats compete for food with cattle and buffaloes, especially in Egypt, and, in that country, both donkeys and camels are extensively used. Further, the whole of Egyptian cultivation depends on irrigation, and much land carries two or even three crops in a year.

With these considerations in view, we propose to compare the Egyptian province of Gharbieh, situated about half way between Cairo and Alexandria in Lower Egypt and typical of rural conditions in that tract, with the Punjab district of Lyallpur. Gharbieh is wholly, and Lyallpur almost wholly, dependent on canal irrigation. In both, the soil consists of a deep fertile alluvium, and in both, the indigenous wooden implements which are in common use call for cattle of about the same strength, though a careful survey would probably show that Lyallpur cattle are larger and stronger than those of Gharbieh. In both areas, the cultivating classes are chiefly Muhammadans, and in both the standard of cultivation is high. The remaining comparisons and contrasts may best be shown by figures. The crop figures are for 1924-25 in Gharbieh and 1925-26 in Lyallpur.

The 318,000 acres of leguminous crops in Gharbieh includes 289,000 acres of fodder crops, mainly Egyptian clover (berseem). The very extensive area under this crop in Gharbieh is the main difference to be noted between the cropping of the Egyptian province and that of the Punjab district.

As the Egyptian statistics do not differentiate young stock as do those for India, an exact comparison of the classes kept is unfortunately, impossible; but, if the young stock of Lyallpur are separated into males

and females as in Gharbieh, then the cattle in the two areas may be further compared as follows:

no

The cultivators of Lyallpur district are perhaps the most prosperous in India and they are able to afford all the cattle they require. În comparing the numbers of livestock kept in the two areas, there is, in this case, reason for holding that the number of cattle kept in Lyallpur is greatly in excess of the numbers which should be kept; the indications are rather that the zamindars of Lyallpur are much better off than the fellaheen of Gharbieh. The chief point of interest that emerges from the comparison is that with such a very small number of draught animals as are kept in Gharbieh, the Egyptian fellaheen should be able to maintain so high a standard of cultivation as they do.

Since, in both Lyallpur and Gharbieh, a large proportion of the land is cropped more than once, the above comparison is made on the basis of the gross area sown; a comparison on the basis of “net area would have been unfair, especially to Egypt. But as we have adopted the "net area sown" as a basis for India, we have included figures calculated for the net area of Lyallpur in the Table on page 185. It will be seen that Lyallpur makes an economical use of draught cattle as compared with other Indian districts. Fewer are used in Akola and Bellary, but the labour required by the unirrigated crops of those districts cannot be compared with that necessary for the irrigated crops of Lyallpur.

Gharbieh, as we have shown, is an Egyptian province which can challenge comparison, in respect of its cultivation, with an Indian district that bears so high a reputation as Lyallpur. The contrast in the cattle position of the two brings out clearly the extent to which it might be possible to reduce the number of working bullocks in India without necessarily reducing the existing standard of cultivation.

EXISTENCE OF

INDIA.

A

168. In the foregoing discussion of the numbers of cattle found in different parts of the country, little has been said of VICIOUS CIRCLE IN the relative sizes of the animals. It is, of course, necessary that full allowance should be made for differences of size and of quality, and had we here been concerned with a comparison of the value of livestock in the several provinces, we should have had much to say on this subject; but this was not our purpose. Nor must it be supposed that, because of differences in size and value, the counting of heads by census enumerators can be of little practical use. We believe that careful scrutiny of the figures would bring out much useful information of a kind likely to correct the numerous and contradictory opinions expressed by persons having experience only of the conditions in particular districts. As the result of our examination of the subject, we may state that we agree with those

witnesses who expressed the opinion that India is attempting to maintain an excessive number of cattle; but it should be observed that this view is not inconsistent with the other, namely, that good cultivation in many parts of the country may now be hindered, because of a deficiency of bullock power. There are areas in the Central Provinces, for example, infested with kans grass, where cattle, though sufficiently numerous, are not strong enough for the work required of them.

We are of opinion that the census figures suggest the existence of a vicious circle. The number of cattle within a district depends upon, and is regulated by, the demand for bullocks. The worse the conditions for rearing efficient cattle are, the greater the numbers kept tend to be. Cows become less fertile, and their calves become undersized and do not satisfy cultivators, who, in the attempt to secure useful bullocks, breed more and more cattle. As numbers increase, or as the increase of tillage encroaches on the better grazing land, the pressure on the available supply of food leads to still further poverty in the cows; and a stage is reached when oxen from other provinces or male buffaloes are brought in to assist in cultivation. This stage has been reached in Bengal. The cows of that province are no longer equal to what, in any reasonably managed herd, would be an easy task. But, as the male buffalo is either not available or is not suited to ordinary field work, large numbers of oxen are imported to supplement those locally bred. As cattle grow smaller in size and greater in number, the rate at which conditions become worse for breeding good livestock is accelerated. For it must not be supposed that the food required by a hundred small cattle is the same in quantity as that needed by fifty of double the size. As cattle become smaller, the amount of food needed in proportion to their size increases. Thus, if a certain weight of fodder maintained one hundred cattle weighing 10 cwts. each for a year, the same supply would last two hundred cattle weighing 5 cwts. each only for about eight months. Large numbers of diminutive cattle are, therefore, a serious drain on a country in which the fodder supply is so scarce at certain seasons of the year as it is in India.

The process has gone so far, India has acquired so large a cattle population and the size of the animals in many tracts is so small that the task of reversing the process of deterioration and of improving the livestock of this country is now a gigantic one; but on improvement in cattle depends to a degree that is little understood the prosperity of agriculture, and the task must be faced.

INDIAN CATTLE.

169. The complaint that cattle in India are deteriorating is an old DETERIORATION OF one. It is mentioned by a traveller* in India at the end of the eighteenth century and it was a common topic of discussion throughout the nineteenth century. It is impossible either to prove or to disprove that average specimens of Indian cattle are better or worse than they were a century, or ten centuries, ago. No full records of their former condition exist, and, if records did exist, it would not be possible to use them so as to show how the 150 million cattle of to-day compare with the 100 millions of a former period. On the evidence *Dr. Buchanan-Hamilton's "Journey through Mysore, Canara and Malabar" (1800), quoted in Watt's Dictionary of the Economic Products of India.

placed before us, we can, however, state that the difficulty of securing good bullocks and good cows has increased in recent years; thus, in relation to the existing demand, the quality of the supply has deteriorated. There was also much evidence to the effect that conditions for breeders of cattle are now more difficult than formerly. While the evidence of witnesses points to the probability that deterioration is going on, our own examination of the position, created primarily by the increasing demand for bullocks owing to the extension of cultivation, leads us to the conclusion that conditions have arisen, and are already at work, which cannot fail to prejudice livestock, and that cattle such as the deplorable animals now to be seen, for example, in parts of Bengal and of the Central Provinces, must become more common unless substantial changes in the existing management take place.

ESSENTIAL POINTS IN A POLICY OF CATTLE IMPROVEMENT.

170. Many suggestions for improvement have been made and the subject is now engaging the attention of experts in all provinces. To these suggestions and efforts we shall later allude. In the meantime, we would emphasise two cardinal points in any policy of cattle improvement. The first is the necessity for attention to all matters that would tend to decrease the number of bullocks required for cultivation. Improvement in this respect would be secured by any measures calculated to check the subdivision and fragmentation of holdings, to increase the efficiency of the cultivator's tillage implements or to facilitate transport, whether by improvement of his roads or by other means, as well as by measures aiming at an increase in the strength of the bullocks themselves. The second is the necessity for efforts to secure for dry cows and cows in-calf better treatment than they now receive. Before developing this latter point, it will be necessary to refer to the management of cattle. 171. The horizon of the Indian peasant is narrowly bounded by his poverty and his illiteracy. Like the poor in all countries, he is lacking in foresight and prudence, and he prizes a rupee in the hand more than two, or for that matter ten, at some future period of time. He adheres strictly to this policy in managing his cattle. He feeds his bullocks as well as he can while they are at work; if they have cost him dear and he is proud of them, as many cultivators are, he will even go to some expense and trouble to keep up their condition during slack seasons. But the expense must make no heavy inroad on his small means, and the trouble must not cause a serious encroachment on his time during his own slack season.

THE CULTIVATOR AS A STOCK MANAGER.

Among the many millions of cultivators of British India, there is no one type. But it is only the minority who contrive, in spite of their difficulties to keep their plough cattle really well. Others keep their cattle in condition when seasons are good and out of condition when seasons are bad. Others, again, never show reasonable care for their plough cattle.

172. To turn from general statements to detail, we have obtained from the agricultural departments in each province an account of the way in which the average cultivator in typical districts feeds his plough cattle, and an

THE RATIONS PLOUGH CATTLE.

OF