128 ORGANISATION 



crop between August and October. No doubt at such 

 times there is a great rush of work, but at other sea- 

 sons there is practically no farm work for the bullocks 

 to do. Therefore it is, and must be, the object of 

 most cultivators to keep as few bullocks as possible ; 

 and in the east Deccan the best cultivators aim at 

 keeping only one pair for 25 acres, while the average 

 is nearer one pair for 40 acres. In the highly culti- 

 vated tracts, where there is little or no free grazing, 

 it will cost about Rs.200 a year to support a pair of 

 large bullocks. If a farmer has 40 or 20 acres, the 

 annual cost, per acre, of maintaining his bullocks 

 comes to Rs.5 or Rs.10. This is a heavy charge, but 

 endurable. When, however, a man in such a tract 

 has only 10 acres, the annual charge, per acre, would 

 work out at Rs.20. This is prohibitive. Such a man 

 would probably solve the difficulty, either by keeping 

 small bullocks and under-feeding them, or by keep- 

 ing none. Neither alternative is satisfactory. The 

 difficulty of the cultivator and the so-called scarcity of 

 cattle do not arise solely from the fact that sufficient 

 work cattle are not bred or that their price is higher 

 than he cares to pay, but largely from the fact that 

 many of the holdings are not economic units which 

 will support a pair of bullocks. If you were to present 

 a pair of fine bullocks to a man owning 10 acres or 

 less of rati land in a region where there was little 

 free grazing, coupled with the condition that he must 

 not sell them or give them away, he would have the 

 alternative of starving them or of becoming a cart- 



