8

Number present at the
close of the year.

30. The balance remaining on the 31st March
1894 is shown below; details will be found in Table
XII:—

Produce number of.

31. The average of produce foaled to mares
covered per stallion for the last two years is given
below:—

32. During the year under report each stallion covered 31.90 mares against
28.85 last year, showing a slight increase. But there is a marked falling off in
the average produce from 11.95 to 7.58 due, in my opinion, to the three follow-
ing causes:—

1. Inaccurate returns.

2. No Inspectors in Sind or Cutch.

3. To the large number of worn out and uncertain foal-getters on the registers.
These horses have been sold during the last six months. I think it is impossible
to accept the produce returns as accurate. For instance the Upper Sind Frontiers
stand has for the last five years returned 133, 156, 136, 79, 68 living produce,
showing a decrease of almost exactly half within this short period, although the
same number of stallions have been at the stand and a steady increase in the
number of coverings has taken place within this time.

All officers in Sind are unanimous in their opinion on this point and give
good reasons for doubting the accuracy of these returns. The depôt stallions
standing at Ahmednagar, of which we are more or less able to check results, show
a produce percentage of 43.41, whereas the combined result throughout the
Presidency and Sind only amounted 26.30. These figures are not satisfactory
and there is no doubt a great difficulty in checking produce returns; neverthe-
less until some better measures are adopted, these results will always work out
badly, and I do not think that the powers of the stallions as foal-getters are
altogether at fault.

Number of colts castrated

33. In Table XIII. will be found the number of horse and mule colts-
castrated by veterinary assistants and salutris during
the year. The statistics for the last five years are
given below:—

Little progress has been made in castration during the past year and the atten-
tion of veterinary graduates in charge of dispensaries has been called to the
fact that in horse-breeding districts it is one of their chief duties. The salutris
attached to this department appeared to make little headway owing to the
aversion the rayat has to get his colt castrated.

                                    II.—Mule-breeding.

Cost of feed, keep, &c., of
donkey stallions.

34. In Table XIV. is given the cost of the feed
and keep of donkey stallions during 1893-94. The
averages for the last five years are given below:—