LIVE STOCK 



Oxen 



THE OXEN AND BUFFALOES 



Nizam's 

 Dominions. 



Hill Cattle. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 407-37. 

 Cattle 

 Food and 

 Fodder. 



Conditions of 

 Bearing. 



are dark, prominent and have a docile appearance. The ears are short with little 

 or no tendency to droop. The horns are very characteristic. They are moder- 

 ately thick at the base, of fair length and are sharply pointed and invariably 

 spring in a forward and upward direction from the head with a graceful outward 

 bend." Prof. Wallace describes the horns as resembling two arcs of a circle 

 set on the crest of the head with the concavity inwards. They are much prized 

 as heavy draught animals, and are accordingly frequently seen all over Central 

 and Western India. They are very strong, but not swift ; being reared on stony 

 ground, have hard feet and do not require shoeing even when worked on 

 metalled roads (Col. Gerard). They are very largely bred in the territories of 

 H.H. the Maharaja Holkar and H.H. the Maharaja Sindia and the cows are 

 often not milked at all, and in consequence when used as milch-cows are a 

 very inferior stock. 



The Khillari cattle of the Satpura hills (in Holkar's territory extending to North 

 Khandesh), according toMollison, were derived originally from Mysore and should 

 be spoken of as the Amrit Mahal breed. Mollison adds, " The fact that 

 Khillari are now bred true to a particular type in a district where Malvi cattle 

 are also extensively reared is a clear indication that the breeders know the ad- 

 vantage of keeping a good strain as pure as possible." Mr. AH Abdoola describes 

 four breeds, met with in H.H. the Nizam's Dominions, that take their names after 

 the towns in which reared. Commenting on these, Vet. Major W. R. Hagger 

 observes that from the description of the prevailing colours " some seem to have 

 a strong strain of Mysore in them, some show a Deccani cross, while others seem 

 to resemble the Malwi breed." \Cf. Kemp, Powlett, Reynolds, Hendley and Hagger , 

 in Agri. Ledg., 1900, No. 21 ; Gerard and Abdoola, in Agri. Ledg., 1900, No. 22 ; 

 Oaz. Rajputana (Ajmir), 1904, i., A., 49-50.] 



13. Hill Cattle. The cattle seen on the higher cultivated Himalaya are 

 small sturdy animals with short, thick legs. They are admirably suited to the 

 regions in which found, and are very active and wild. They are mostly 

 black in colour, though occasionally dun or mottled examples are met with. 

 They are well protected from the severity of the winter by a thick, shaggy coat. 

 The hump and dewlap are hardly if at all present, and, as pointed out by Walker, 

 they much resemble the Kerry-Dexter cattle of Great Britain and Ireland. The 

 cattle of the lower tracts, being annually taken to the grazing lands of the Bhaber 

 country, have been crossed with the breeds of the adjacent plains. In the higher 

 tracts the pure hill breeds are met with, and these are spoken of by names de- 

 noting regions or special sub-breeds. The males are used for ploughing, but 

 their working qualities are poor and many refuse to work at all, while the cows 

 are poor milkers. In a further paragraph will be found particulars of the traffic 

 from Nepal to the plains of India in live stock. [Cf. Walker, Kumaon Cattle, in 

 Agri. Ledg., 1899, No. 7 ; Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir, 358-60.] 



]The following enumeration of publications, in sequence of date, may be found 

 useful: Thevenot, Travels in Levant, Indostan, etc., 1687, pt. iii., 51-2; 

 Buchanan-Hamilton, Journ. to Mysore, 1807, i., 164-6; ii., 14, 277, 382; also Hist. 

 E. Ind., ii., 891-7 ; Baden-Powell, Pb. Prod., 1868, i., 151 ; Wallace, India in 1887 ; 

 Voelcker, Improv.Ind. Agri., 1893, 198-216 ; Exp.FarmRept.,Poona, 1893, 11-4 ; 

 1895 , 21-5 ; 1896, 20-5 ; AGRI. LEDG. : Leather, Farm-yard Manure, 1894, 

 No. 3; Mollison, Management of Dairy Cattle in Ind., 1895, No. 6; Leather, 

 Ind. Manures, 1897, No. 8 ; Walker, Measurement of Cattle, 1899, No. 8. Subbiah, 

 The Housing of Cattle and Conserving of Manure, U. Prov. Bull., 1901, No. 14; 

 Stat. Atlas of Ind., 1895, 33-4 (2 maps). Dairy Cows, in U.S. Dept. Agri. Bull., 

 1900, No. 68 ; Feeding Exp. with Dairy Cows, in U.S. Dept. Agri. Bull., 1901, 

 No. 114; Formation of Beef and Dairy Cows, in U.S. Dept. Agri. Bull., 1902, 

 No. 143 ; Reed, of Individual Cows, Univ. Illinois. Bull., 1903, No. 85 ; Pierre 

 and Monteil, Le Bceuf au Soudan, in L'Agri. Prat, des Pays Chauds, 1905, v., pt. 

 i., 364-77.] 



CATTLE FOOD AND FODDER. There may be said to be two 

 conditions of cattle-rearing in India (a) village or agricultural, and (6) 

 prairie or nomadic. The latter consists of large herds fed on fertile non- 

 cultivated lands, the former small herds or solitary animals reared at the 

 homesteads, thus mostly on cultivated lands. It is generally said, more- 

 over, that the advances of cultivation are rapidly curtailing the areas of 

 nomadic production and thereby cutting off the sources of supply of 



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