The first class supply energy which enables an animal to go on working, but the second class 

 (which it will be remembered contain nitrogen) are essential to replace the wear and tear of 

 substance that is constantly going on in an animal body ; in order to feed an animal so as to 

 get the best work out of it, it is necessary not only to see that the weight of food given is 

 gufficient, but also that it contains a due proportion of flesh food. Now we have seen that 

 most of the flesh food produced by plants is stored in the seeds, and very little of it in the 

 leaves and stems*: it follows that when cattle are doing hard work they ought to receive a 

 fair amount of seed or grain as well as fodder, and even when they are idle some grain should 

 be given to keep them in really good health/' 



For further information about food and the nutritive value of different 

 grains, Church's " Eood Grains of India " may be consulted. It is worth while to 

 note that a standard diet for human beings should contain albuminoids and 

 starch in about the proportion of 1 5. This is very much the proportion in 

 which they exist in wheat, but in the millets and maize the proportion is 

 about 18, in rice about 1 11, and in mandwal 13. In pulses the proportion 

 of albuminoids to starch is much higher than 1 5 ; hence the utility of such 

 mixtures as rice anddal or bajra and moth khichri (porridge). The analyses 

 of the chemical contents of the grain of different crops given in this note are 

 taken from Professor Church's book. In paragraph 239 of his work on the 

 " Improvement of Indian Agriculture " the late Dr. Voelcker remarked in 1893 

 that little was known as to the relative nutritive values of different fodders in 

 India, and apparently this has so far not been remedied. No doubt the straw 

 of the pulses generally contains more albuminoids than that of the cereals, and 

 it is on this account that they are weight for weight more valuable as fodder. 



3. "We are not here concerned with the wild plants which furnish food 



for cattle. The list of trees, shrubs 

 and herbs on which they feed is a very 



long one. A large part of it is occupied with the names of grasses, and of 

 leguminous trees, such as various species of acacia and the dhak (Butea 

 frondosa) and herbs, such as maina or maini (Medicago denticulata 1 , a near 

 relation of lucerne. For information the following may be referred to : 



(a) Duthie's "Fodder Grasses of Northern India." 

 (&) Coldstream's " Grasses of the Southern Punjab." 



(c) Duthie's four lists on pages 407-437 of volume III of the Diction- 

 ary of Economic Products. 



It is probable that considerable additions could be made to the lists of 

 flowering plants other than grasses. 



The two best fodder grasses in the plains are dnjan or dhdman (Pennisetum 

 cenchroides), and dub, dutra, or khabbal (Cynodon dactylon), and the most 

 useful shrub is the jhdrleri or malla (Zizyphus nummularia), the leaves of 

 which, pdla, are a very valuable food for milch kine. 



4. The food of cattle, so far as it is derived from crops, may be classified 



as consisting of 



Meaning of " fodder crops." 



() straw Vern. " chdra " or " nira " ; 



(6) the roots and tops of certain cruciferous plants, such as turnips 

 and carrots ; 



(c) gram ; 



(d) oil-cake" klial " or " khali " ; 



(e ) cotton seeds " linola " or " varenwa ". 



It is only with the first two that a note On fodder crops is directly concerned 

 " Fodder" according to a dictionary definition is " food for cattle, horses, and 

 sheep, as hay, straw, and other kinds of vegetables." This is somewhat vague. 

 A good working definition would be " the food derived by live-stock from crops 

 exclusive of the ripe grain." Thus the ripe grain of wheat, or mdsh or jowdr 



* See in this connection chemical analysis of grain and straw of jowar in paragraph 21. 



