40

District Local Board bull covered 107 cows against 103 covered by
two bulls.

Willingdon Cattle Farm.

9. The control of the Willingdon Cattle Farm was transferred
to the Deputy Director of Agriculture
for Animal Breeding, Bombay Presi-
dency, under Government Resolution No. A.-430, dated the 31st
January 1923.

Financial.

10. The total expenditure of the
department amounted to Rs. 1,63,489
as against Rs. 1,86,643.

General remarks.

11.    Khan Bahadur S. G. Haji, Deputy Superintendent, Civil
Veterinary Department, Sind, has been
granted an extension of service up to
the 31st March 1924. The question of the appointment of
Veterinary Inspectors in Sind has been deferred pending his
retirement.

12.    Constant touring is essential if a headway is to be made
against cattle disease. The villages where inoculations have been
carried out are beginning to report diseases and five Veterinary
Graduates have each inoculated 1,000 cases. Moreover, the villagers
want to see and to know the Veterinary Assistant. It is the same
with plague inoculation. A doctor they know has far more appli-
cations than a new man.

13.    In a purely agricultural tract like Sind, the improvement
of the breed of cattle is important. It is of little use to leave this
to Local Boards, a scheme which has been tried for 30 years with
little progress to its credit. Where there is abundance of irrigated
crops and kadbi is the best in the Presidency and is rich in dietetic
values as any Officer Commanding a Battery will admit, there
should be as fine a breed of agricultural cattle here as anywhere.
It is hoped that money will be found to push on cattle breeding.
Horse breeding has been tried in Sind for thirty years and over, to
the Commissioner's knowledge, and little success has been achieved.
Norfolk Trotters were introduced to bring bone, with disastrous
and amorphous results: then English thoroughbreds twice the size
of the Sindhi mares. We need to breed 14.2's. A 16 2½ stallion
like Opal stationed at Umarkot in 1894 is not wanted. The
Commissioner has known of a country bred stallion of a great
reputation, privately owned, which the Larkana zamindars
patronised from enormous distances and a, wise purchase of a good
country bred stallion will be popular. Arabs are not much liked.
Good country bred stallions, when they can be found, will enable
some real progress to be made ; they will be cheaper to buy and far
more popular than the present costly stallions and are as hardy as
could be wished.

                                                                                L. J. MOUNTFORD,
                                                                                Commissioner in Sind.

To

        The Secretary to Government,

                            Revenue Department, Bombay.