Vol. XVIII, No. 454. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



29S 



journals, in which the Meade variety tppears as a new early 

 Sea Island cotton, or as a hybrid between the Upland and 

 Sea Island types. 



The usual reasoning \a such matters is to assume that 

 a variety like Meade must be a hybrid because the plant is like 

 Upland cotton and the lint like Sea Island, butth' uniform- 

 ity of the Meade cotton at once places it in a differ<-nt 

 class from any stock known to have a direct hybrid origin. 



The need of combining the superior fibre of the Sea 

 IslanJ <r Egyptian types of cotton with the superior 

 cultural characters nf the Upland type has appealed strongly 

 to breeders, and many attempts have been made 

 to secure this result by hybridizing ditferent Upland varieties 

 with Sea Island or Egyp'ian sort?. Crossing is readily 

 accomplished, and the results usmlly app-ar promising in 

 the first and second generations. Thou.sinds of natural and 

 artificial hybrids have been raised, c mpared, and selected, 

 and progenies of such hybiids have been carried through 

 numerous generations, but without tinding any hybrid stock 

 with a sufficiently uniform and liable combination of the 

 desirable characters of the parental types to justify com 

 mercial planting. While it is doubtless true that need of 

 uniformity is greater with cotton than with any other crops, 

 on account of the industrial uses of the fibre, the failure 

 to secure f uflicienily stable combinations of characters from 

 hybrids between widely dilferent types may be significant. 



AMRAT MAHAL CATTLE. 



This breed of cattle was imported into Antigua about 

 the year 191:2, and the importation consisted of one bull 

 and one cow. At the present time the original owners, 

 Messrs. Henkell Du Bui.'^son A Co., possess three pure- 

 bred bulls, two pure-bred cows, and one pure-bred heifer. 

 In addition, there are numerous half bred animals in the 

 original herd, and two half brei bulls have been sold locally. 

 None of the progeny of these animals has b' en exported, 

 but numerous enquiries have been received as regards price, 

 ■etc., from the French islands 



A Mysore Hui.t.. 



In the ' Cattle of Southern India', Lieutenant-Colone' 

 "W. D. Gunn, i-uperintendent, Indian Civil Veterinary 

 Department, Madras, gives a descrip:ioi of the animals. 

 He states: ' As dairy slock, the cows are insignificant, being 

 very poor milkers iho whole <'f the milk being barely 

 sufficient to nourish the c^Uves. The milk is very rich and 



sweet. The bull is not used until he is five years old, and 

 he is said to retain his vigour until he is ten, after which he 

 is castrated and discarded from the herd. 



' In disposition the cattle are wild, unruly, and impa- 

 tient in the presence of strangers ; (this is not so in Antigua : 

 they are particularly I'liet and docile) ; it requires several 

 months of kind treatment and patience to break them in ; 

 they require to be gradually habituated to the yoke, and 

 harsh treatment only makes them stubborn.' 



Captain Davidson, in a report on the Amrat Mahal 

 cattle attached to the Bombay column of the English Army 

 in Afghanistan in 1842, .says : ' No draught cattle in either 

 army were so efficient as the 230 Mysore bullocks which 

 accompanied the Bombay troops to Afghanistan. It was 

 entirely due to the very superior description of cattle that no 

 part of the Bombay Park wis required to lie abandoned when 

 the troops were returning t'> India through the almost impass- 

 able roads through the Tirah Mountains. These cattle were 

 frequently upwards of sixteen hoars in yoke.' (Report on 

 the Agricultural Department, Antigua, 1917-18). 



DRAUGHT CAMELS. 



Writing in the loiirwxl d'Agruie/fure Pratique, M r. F. 

 Couston, Agricultural Engineer of the South Algerian 

 Territories, gives some interesting pirticulars of the use of 

 the camel in the Algerian Sahara as a draught animal. It is 

 little used as such, he says, but this is a mistake, as it is 

 fairly intelligent and cun be well broken in Were it tised 

 for draught purposes, many agricultural works could be 

 carried out that would greatly increase soil productivity in 

 many regions of South .\lgeria where horses and mules are 

 few and costly, or even absent. If the camel were harnessed 

 to the plough, vast regions still uncultivated could be made 

 productive, and thousands of acres could be sown down to 

 wheat. 



Camels are little used for ploughing in Algeria, while 

 the practice is quite common in Tunis. Thus the Sfaxiens 

 plough their immense oliin groves with camels, turning round 

 and round the trees, which shows the animal can be well 

 broken in. In Tunis caiuels are harnessed to a small cart 

 with two high wheels called 'araba", and used for most of 

 the carting. Mowers, reapers, binders, and cultivttors, can be 

 drawn by camels, either singly or in pairs. This has been 

 shown at the Agricultural Experiment Institute at Tripoli, 

 where barley was harvested with a harvester drawn by two 

 camels harnessed abreast. 



The camel can also be harnessed to machines for raising 

 water, as is done in Mzab, Breaking in the draught camel 

 is, according to Lieutenant Bel, ' not ditBcult, as the cimel 

 is rather timid than obstinate ; brutal treatment must be 

 avoided if quick results are wanted ; the voi-;e, a move- 

 ment made with a stick or whip, mostly suffice to urge tbetn 

 on. As with the horse, the camel must be accustomed to 

 walking with complete harness before it is put to draw, 

 oare being taken that the men pull gradually nn the swingle- 

 trees, while as many camels as possible should be plveil 

 abreast.' 



The author record." a very successful ploughing match with 

 camels at Biskra, in February 1918, when seventy competi- 

 tors took part. It would be interesting, at the annual com- 

 petitions for distributing prizes to camel breeders, to include a 

 class for draught camels, together with suitable tests, {hur- 

 '■al of the Roya/ .'>oa\ty'>J.irts,Jn\y 2-5, 1919.) 



