THE CATTLE PROBLEM OF INDIA 71 



Indian animals give between five and seven thousand 

 pounds per year as against the best dairy breeds of 

 America giving between twenty and thirty thousand 

 pounds of milk a year. 



I account for the rise of the Brahamini bull to power 

 in the following way. In the case of the failure of the 

 rains it is the cattle that suffer the most severely. Owing 

 to the failure of the rains in 1918 in the Ahmadnagar 

 district eighty per cent, of the cattle died because there 

 was no fodder. The Bombay Times of the fifteenth of 

 August, 1919, reported that in the preceding year from 

 fifty to sixty per cent, of the cattle had died in Scinde 

 because of lack of fodder and lack of roads. These 

 famines are so severe that unless special provision were 

 made it would be quite possible over a very large ter- 

 ritory, for every single animal to die. Thus special 

 provision must be taken and many animals are kept by 

 the temples and share in the offerings made to the 

 priests. 



In connection with many of the temples one of the 

 acts of worship is for the worshiper to take hold of the 

 brush at the end of the cow's tail, under instructions of 

 the priest. These cattle around the temples have a 

 chance to live even though all the other cattle round 

 about die. 



In the densely populated parts of India the farm is 

 so small that it is impossible to keep many cattle. The 

 farmer usually keeps only one cow in order to raise the 

 work oxen to do his plowing and to provide a little milk. 

 Under these circumstances the one farmer can not afford 

 to keep a bull or if he did keep one, the other farmers 

 would not be willing to pay for the use of the bull. 

 Therefore the custom has arisen, usually in celebration 



