F. WARE 69
by selection. The Government cattle farms are managed on modern scientific
lines, and regular and systematic records are maintained. Surplus bulls are
distributed in villages for stud purposes on some sort of premium system, de-
tails of which vary from province to province, with the object of grading up
the inferior village stock in the locality. For this extension work the supply
from the farms is supplemented by purchase of the progeny from approved
bulls, when animals of the requisite quality are available, thus affording en-
couragement to private breeders. These activities are, however, very limited
and the total number of approved bulls at stud in the whole of India is not yet
sufficiently large to produce an appreciable improvement in the general run
of the cattle in the country as a whole. There are in all about 10,000 approved
bulls at stud in British India, which is only one-hundredth part of the actual
requirements. The personal interest shown by H. E. the Viceroy in cattle
improvement and the appeal issued by him have helped to increase the number
of approved bulls by about 25 per cent.
The Veterinary Departments of the Provinces and States assist cattle
improvement to a very large extent by the control of contagious diseases and
the systematic castration of inferior males. Disease has been one of the
greatest limiting factors in cattle improvement in India, and serious efforts
are being made both in regard to prevention and cure. Rinderpest, which
accounts for 60 per cent of the total mortality from contagious diseases, is
the greatest menace, but, as already noted, a cheap and effective weapon of
vaccination is now available for use against this plague. Over a million
castrations are performed annually by the veterinary staff and the number
is increasing steadily.
Results obtained.—Reference has been made in previous sections to the
breeds of cattle existing in India and to the organizations at work for their
improvement. A review of the results obtained in recent breeding work is
presented below. It will show that, small though this work is as compared
with the vastness of the live-stock population in India, enough has been done
to demonstrate the undoubted potentialities for improvement that Indian
cattle possess, and the striking rapidity with which they respond to scientific
feeding and management.
Though the villager invariably looks upon a cow as the mother of his
working bullocks, a definite classification of the various breeds into draught,
milch, and dual purpose is possible. For many centuries past the Indian village
cattle-breeder has undoubtedly paid most attention to draught qualities, with
the result that those requiring good specimens of this class of animal have a
large range from which to select, as explained earlier in this paper.
In recent years, however, necessity for providing the Indian population
with larger quantities of milk at a cheap rate (the present consumption is
stated by Wright [10] to be less than 8 oz. per head per day) has led to a great
effort being made towards the development of those breeds which show po-
tentialities for milk production, either alone or in combination with draught
qualities.
The Sahiwal, the premier milch breed of India, has received the greatest
attention. Pedigree herds of this breed are maintained on many farms and
have fully justified the expenditure of time, effort, and money spent on them.