HAPPY INDIA 145 



get a great deal of that grain, which I have calculated 

 as being sufficient for the human population, and it 

 is probable that it is the need of giving this grain 

 to the cattle which is one of the chief causes of the 

 insufficient supplies of food to the working popula- 

 tion. The richer people, who own horses and who 

 desire to get a good supply of milk from their cows 

 and good work from their oxen, will buy corn 

 for those purposes, thus raising the price and 

 diminishing the supply of corn for their poorer 

 neighbours. 



When we recollect that an ox requires from 15 

 to 30 Ib. of food a day, we soon realise that the animals 

 require a great deal more food than the human 

 beings, and we must also realise that in a country 

 like the northern part of India, where over large 

 areas there is no rainfall for eight or nine months 

 in the year, it becomes apparent that the grazing- 

 ground for the cattle must be dried up for more than 

 half the year, therefore in those months there is 

 no green grass available for the cattle. If one 

 calculates the weight of straw, one finds that it is 

 not sufficient by a long way. There are no statistics 

 to show the weight of grass, and the acreage under 

 fodder crops is not much more than 8,000,000 out 

 of a total acreage under crops of 271,000,000. Some 

 proportion of grain, bran or meal is generally set 

 down as part of the daily ration of a cow or a working 

 ox or horse, so I am forced to the conclusion that 

 in the densely populated parts of the Ganges Valley 

 and the Punjab, and elsewhere the cattle eat a 



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