26 



The number of bullocks disposed of in these years was nearly 

 five times as many as in normal times and the average price was 

 less than half what would ordinarily have been obtained. The 

 Deputy Commissioner of Rohtak writes : " Since the famine of 

 1877-78 besides many years of scarcity there have been 3 famines, 

 and although the returns of cattle sold at the fairs are somewhat 

 misleading owing to a custom prevailing in the rain land villages 

 of selling the oxen after one crop has gro'wn up, and buying afresh 

 for the sowings of the next crop so as to avoid the intervening 

 expense of upkeep, a comparison of the transactions of famine with 

 normal years shows the drain on the resources of the district. 

 Thus the sales of oxen and cows in the famine years 1899-1900 were 

 roughly 16,500 above those of the previous year, and in 1905-06 

 ten thousand in excess of the years before." 



In his Settlement Report of the Sirsa District Mr. (now Sir 

 James) Wilson remarks : " Cattle-breeding in such a country is a very 

 " speculative business, and the peasants seem to find it more profit- 

 " able in the long run to allow their cattle to multiply up to the 

 l number which can be supported by the year's fodder until the 

 *' usual season for a new growth of grass, and to take their chance 

 " of the rains failing. If the rains come as usual, the speculation 

 " is a success, and the cattle are safe for another year ; 

 " if they fail, the speculator loses his profits and some portion 

 "of his capital but one or two good seasons soon make it up to 

 " him again. It is not improbable that improvements in the 

 " methods of storing fodder would be utilised by the Sirsa peasant 

 " not so much in guarding against the consequences of drought as 

 " in multiplying his stock still further, and taking his chance of the 

 " rains as before; and this is perhaps in the circumstances the most 

 " profitable way of conducting this trade as a cattle-breeder;" 



These remarks written in 1882, apply equally to all dis- 

 tricts in the Hariana tract. But since then the state of the 

 Hariana cattle trade has become yearly more important to 

 Northern India, and it is yearly becoming more important to guard 

 against these sudden losses of stock. 



It is not too much to ascribe the greater proportion of the 

 rise in price of cattle, of which every district complains, to the 

 depletion of the Hariana store-house during the period from 1896 

 to 1903. The past few years have been favourable to the Hissar 

 district and the number of cattle in all classes is again approach- 

 ing the level of 1894. That the store should ever have been 

 depleted, must be a matter for universal regret. 



