12
The September rain interfered a good deal with hay-making operations:
on two occasions a number of nearly completed stacks had to be pulled down
and spread out to dry, but eventually over 10,000 maunds of hay was saved.
From April 1st to the middle of July practically the whole head of stock
on the Farm had to be stall-fed. Nearly all the fodder used was grown on the
Farm.
4. The issues of stud bulls to District Boards was again a record
in point of numbers. The actual receipts for the year amounted to
Rs. 1,09,374-10-8. Had all stock been issued at the rates fixed by the Quin-
quennial Committee, the receipts would have totalled Rs. 1,48,574.
5. In July the Farm was visited by a Brazilian breeder. My first
instructions were to sell him no cattle at all, but eventually I was given per-
mission to sell him 1 bull, 1 cow with a male calf at heel at Rs. 300, and 4 young
male produce. He agreed to pay Rs. 1,200 for the bull and Rs. 500 each
for the young males, but the outbreak of the war and consequent embargo on
Indian cattle prevented him exporting, and he was allowed to withdraw from
the bargain.
6. As regards contagious diseases the year has not been fortunate,
and the following outbreaks occurred during the year:—
(a) Rinderpest was discovered in a herd of cows with calves at heel
at Sally on June 3rd. Fortunately at that time there were
only about 400 cows and some 20 herd bulls at Sally, as,
owing to the total absence of grazing then prevailing, the
herd had been split up to facilitate stall feeding operations,
the majority being about 3 miles away in Kraals near the
Mundiawala cultivation jowar fields. Unfortunately the
affected herds were in very poor condition, mostly being cows
with big calves under them, and least able of all the Farm
stock to resist disease. The outbreak was at first exceedingly
mild, and I do not think it would have made any headway
at all had the stock been fat: in fact it was not until an oppor-
tunity occurred for a post mortem examination that I was
able to definitely diagnose rinderprest.
Some of the later cases were very severe, and in all ways
typical of the disease as it occurs in India.
Serum was telegraphed for on the discovery of the first
suspicious case, but unfortunately the Imperial Bac-
teriological Laboratory was at that moment out of
stock and I had to wait some time for a supply.
Fortunately sufficient green fodder (a great factor in suc-
cessful treatment of this disease) was available to allow
of my giving all the affected and in contact animals as
much as they would eat, and in spite of the delay I was
able to inoculate the herd before the disease had reach-
ed very serious proportions.
Fortunately also strict segregation measures were success-
ful in limiting the disease to the herd originally attacked.
In all 14 deaths occurred from the disease and 439 animals
were inoculated.
An interesting feature of the outbreak was the apparent
strong immunity possessed by the calves in the affected
herds. The first case among calves did not occur till
the 23rd of June, 20 days after the first case among
cows. The calves were fat and the cows thin, but
this does not entirely account for the immunity, as early
in the outbreak several cases occurred amongst herd
bulls, which were in excellent condition, and were
throughout kept in a separate yard while the calves were
running with their affected mothers. No herd bull died