120 EQUIPMENT 



kinds of fodder are required. Many excellent varieties 

 exist, notably kadbi or jowari stalk. Much of this 

 kadbi grows so coarse that cattle can hardly tackle 

 the hard nodes and the flinty cuticle, and entirely 

 reject the lower part of the stalk. As a result of this 

 it is common to see half of this admirable feed wasted. 

 This waste can be entirely prevented by the use of a 

 circular chaff cutter, and the fodder made to go twice 

 as far as it did before. The use of such chaff cutters 

 is being widely advocated and slowly adopted by the 

 larger cattle owners. Lucerne, guinea grass, and 

 shevari (sesbania egyptica) are being introduced as 

 subsidiary sources of fodder into tracts where they 

 were before unknown, and the problems of improving 

 poor pastures are being worked out with considerable 

 success. To help the owners of cattle to preserve 

 their cattle through the periodic fodder famines which 

 occur, Government maintain reserves of fodder to 

 provide for the opening stages of difficulty, and or- 

 ganise extensive measures for the cutting, baling and 

 transport of forest grass to tide over the famine period. 

 Reserves of baled grass and shredded and baled kadbi 

 are also maintained by the Agricultural Department 

 in various localities, which are designed to provide 

 for the occasional necessities of the better class of 

 cattle breeders who are working with bulls supplied 

 by the Department. In times of scarcity, also, steps 

 are taken to organise the preparation and use of 

 prickly pear for feeding purposes, which makes a 

 useful emergency fodder when the thorns have been 



