INDIAN CATTLE. 75 



unsoundness. (5) The Cow Protection Movement has met with an 

 extraordinary degree of success among the agricultural classes, who 

 are specially likely to experience the need for something to he done 

 to improve or prevent deterioration of their cattle. The movement 

 is a sign of the times, even though Srimau Swamy's views be 

 extreme, and his statements and statistics erroneous. 



This deterioration is perhaps to an extent to be traced to an 

 unwillingness on the part of the powers that be to interfere between 

 the Native and his cattle ; there is a lurking idea that it is bad policy 

 and unpopular for Europeans to have anything whatever to do with 

 Indian cattle, and that, moreover, the Natives know very much more 

 about the cattle of India than Europeans do. Also many Europeans 

 look upon cattle as below their notice, for it is only the district 

 officials who fully realise their importance. But it is bad policy 

 to look upon anything as too common to be worth our notice ; on 

 the contrary, the mere fact of the ox rendering us important 

 services entitles him to our best aid and sympathy. That action of 

 the authorities in regulating cattle-breeding would be unpopular is a 

 purely gratuitous assumption, and is disproved apparently by the 

 fact that in many parts of India at various times Native Govern- 

 ments have regulated cattle-breeding with vigour and success, the 

 best breeds of the present day having thus been developed. 



That Natives know very much more about cattle than Europeans 

 is a fallac3 r ; they have more crude empirical knowledge as regards 

 cattle management and working, but the sum total of their infor- 

 mation is very small and local. The best European authorities on 

 Indian cattle are much better acquainted with the subject than are 

 the Natives, but this is not saying much, for a very great deal 

 has yet to be learned ! Among those who have contributed to our 

 knowledge of this important subject are Gilchrist, a surgeon on the 

 Madras Establishment, long serving at Hoonsoor, who wrote a book 

 on "Diseases of Horned Cattle in India"; the late lamented Dr. Shortt, 

 whose small book on Indian Cattle gives useful information; and 

 Professor Wallace, in whose book " India in 1887 " are accumulated 

 and arranged photographs of various kinds of cattle, with a descrip- 

 tion of each in the letterpress. Smaller contributions have been 

 made to the subject but altogether our information is very inconsi- 



