I. INTRODUCTORY. 



In August 1909 the Punjab Government decided that a report 

 should be prepared dealing with the cattle trade of the province 

 with special reference to the profits of cattle-breeding, and the 

 Director of Agriculture was asked to obtain information on the 

 subject from District officers. The Director of Agriculture issued 

 a circular,* drawing attention to the principal points to be dealt 

 with by the District officers in their enquiries. The present report 

 is based on the replies to this circular. In order to obtain an 

 idea of the subject from the stand point of the province as a whole 

 the officer deputed to write the report visited the principal fairs 

 and breeding centres of the Punjab during the last three months 

 of the cold weather and had the opportunity of talking over the 

 subject with District officers, the officers of the Civil Veterinary 

 Department and the principal landowners and zamindars. At the 

 end of the cold weather an informal conference was convened 

 by the Director of Agriculture, consisting of Major Walker, Chief 

 Superintendent of the Civil Veterinary Department, Major Farmer 

 of the Hissar Cattle Farm, Mr. Woodley of the Civil Veterinary 

 Department and the writer at which a short note of the principal 

 conclusions arrived at was discussed. 



So far as the Punjab is concerned the interest taken in 

 this important matter is by no means of recent growth. The re- 

 ports of the Assistant to the Inspector-General, Civil Veterinary 

 Department, from 1895 to 1898, by Captains Pease and Gunn form 

 a fairly complete survey of cattle-breeding in the Punjab at that 

 time, and contain many suggestions and anticipations which have 

 received too little attention. Captain Pease's " Note on Indigenous 

 Breeds of Cattle in the Punjab " is a valuable record of typical 

 stock to be found in the province, but his treatment of the subject 

 is primarily technical, and questions such as the encouragement of 

 village breeding, and the preservation of fodder in times of scarcity 

 are only incidentally discussed. A survey of cattle breeding in 

 each district is now being undertaken by the Civil Veterinary 

 Department. But as the time of these officers is fully occupied by 

 their ordinary duties the progress of the survey is likely to be 

 slow. 



In the quinquennial cattle census t which has been taken since 

 1899, the province possesses a store of information as to the num- 

 bers and distribution of its cattle. But mere figures in this case 



* See Appendix No. 2. 

 t See Appendix No. 1. 



