68 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY [ III, I

the one disadvantage of the grass, and the Livestock Station uses a comb drawn
by horses to comb out the seeds before mowing the grass for hay.

The plan of the investigation was to take monthly samples from the four
paddocks selected, over a period of eighteen months. The places where
samples were drawn were marked off by wooden stakes driven into the ground,
and an area covered by a circle of 10 feet radius was separated and not grazed or
mown. The sample was cut by hand from this area, and after thorough mixing on
a cemented floor, shaken free of sand and earth, and all other species other than
the Spear grass picked out. A sample of 100 grams was put into an envelope
and weighed for the determination of the original moisture. The rest of the
sample reduced to about 500 grams by quartering and brought to the Research
Institute at Coimbatore for analysis.

                                CHARACTER OF THE SEASON.

Table I gives details of rainfall at the Livestock Research Station, Hosur, for
the period during which the investigation was being carried out.

                                             TABLE I.

NOTE.—A ' rainy day ' is one when rainfall is 0.10" and above.
Mean rainfall for Hosur town 3 miles distant.

The season in the two years can be taken to be normal as judged by the
departure from normal of the rainfall. No other meteorological data could be
obtained owing to the absence of a recording station, in the vicinity of the Research
Station. The rainfall of April 1929 prior to the starting of the sampling and that
of May 1930 during the experimental period are probably the only unusual features.

As usual the North-east monsoon contributed the bulk of the year's rainfall
between September and December, and this period coincides with the period of the