t 6,7 ] 



are generally owned by substantial carters, who feed them 

 fairly well, work much better than the leaner sorts. The im- 

 provement of draught-cattle, not only in appearance but also 

 in physique, must be effected not by going in for importing 

 new breeds, but by feeding the existing acclimatized breeds 

 better than they are at present fed. A man who owns 5 

 acres of land must have a pair of oxen to work it. At the 

 rate of half a maund of fresh grass per day, the two animals 

 require an annual supply of 365 maunds of fodder. This 

 quantity of ordinary grass is the produce of about 4 acres 

 of land, but a raiyat who owns a holding of 5 acres cannot 

 set apart 4 acres for the feed of his cattle. The remaining 

 one acre will not support himself and his family. Nor has 

 he now the same facilities for pasturing his cattle on waste 

 land and forest land which he had at one time when there 

 was far less land under cultivation. True, he has the straw, 

 both cereal and leguminous, from his five acres to feed his 

 bullocks, and the scanty herbage of his fields after a crop 

 has been harvested and until a new crop is put in. But from 

 5 acres of land the quantity of straw and herbage at the 

 dry season, obtainable, is only about 150 maunds. When 

 the full quantity needed is 365 maunds, 150 maunds must 

 necessarily keep the animals only half-fed or still worse. 

 No wonder, the raiyat's cattle are so miserable. Where 

 waste lands and forest lands are abundant, the question of 

 growing fodder crops may be of no importance, but for most 

 parts of Bengal the question is most important. 365 maunds 

 of fodder can be grown on one acre of land by proper culti- 

 vation and proper choice of staples. There are certain fodder 

 crops that will grow both in the kharif and rabi seasons ; 

 others are perennial (such as Panicum muticum and lucerne). 

 Leguminous fodder crops are more nourishing than cereal 

 straw or grasses ; and a portion of the fodder say, one-fourth, 

 should be of a leguminous kind, so that the proper albumi- 

 noid ratio (1:12 or 1:13) may be secured without the addition 

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