( 104 ) 



To these villages they bring their home-bred calves or their worn-out cattle, 

 which some hapless cultivator who cannot afford more than three or four 

 rupees will buy to carry on with. (The cultivator rarely gives above Rs< 15 

 for an ox, buying young if possible.) 



112. Besides these opportunities for purchase, Banjdras come from 

 April to June "from the west" with herds (" heri") of two-year-old cattle 

 of west country breeds, and travelling eastwards, sell as they go, taking only 

 earnest-money, and leaving the balance due unprotected by any note of hand, 

 fec. But when they return in November and December they alight at the 

 door of their debtor in such numbers that he is glad enough to pay them up 

 and get rid of visitors who will eat him out of house and home, if they do not 

 insult himself and family. 



113. Country-bred buffaloes are much used by those who cannot afford 

 better cattle, as they cost but Es. 10 at the outside : they last about ten years. 

 Till lately Brahmans and Thakurs had a prejudice against using this animal, 

 which is giving away under the pressure of poverty. 



114. Country-bred cattle have their nose pierced by chamars when 

 they have two teeth ; the incision is kept open by a string of mdnj grass, which 

 by its roughness does not adhere to- the wound. The chamar is fed on the 

 occasion of the nose-piercing. 



115. The country cattle are much in demand across the Ganges, as 

 their small stature fits them for the light soils prevalent there, and they are 

 not wanted for irrigation, which is said to be carried on chiefly by " dhenklis." 



116. Ahirs are the principal cattle breeders, but as far as possible every 

 cultivator keeps a cow or buffalo, and rears or sells the calves. 



117. The cultivator can generally feed his cattle on the produce of his 



fields, eked out in some months by grass and " hariyai," 

 Keep of cattle. J . 



or a mixture of green food containing grasses, weeds, 



leaves, or whatever comes to hand. Thus in October there is " chari," jwdr 

 grown thick for fodder, and cut green; in November bajra "karb" is to hand, 

 or tops of the hemp plant; in December to March jwdr "karb" is plentiful, and 

 is cut up and mixed with seohdri, sarson, &c. (called " katiya") ; from March 

 to April, if the " karb" is finished, the cattle are rather pinched, but sufficient 

 " bijhra" to keep them alive is cut green and given them till the crops are down, 

 when the cattle graze amongst the stubble. In April, May, and June there is 

 plenty of bhusa, whilst for July to September there is grass enough and to 

 spare. 



118. Thus if an acre of jwdr gives seventy bundles of " karb," averaging 

 twenty-five seers a-piece, the ordinary quantity of food given to a full-grown 

 working ox being ten seers (or a little under), the acre of jwdr will provide food 



