XV. ANIMALS IN FAMINE 



THE rains that announce the close of an Indian famine 

 bring relief to animals before they lighten human 

 sufferings. The green-stuff springs up and gives 

 food for the cattle long before the grain can ripen and 

 provide a meal for the peasant. But the animals have 

 time to recover their strength and be ready to do their 

 work in preparing the ground for the next crop, and 

 the actual loss of life among the beasts of the field is 

 arrested. This is said to have been less in the last 

 famine than in many which have affected much smaller 

 areas. The total failure of the grain crops was due to 

 absence of rain at a definite point of time when it was 

 necessary to its germination. But there was not such 

 a protracted and general drought as to bring on the 

 whole animal population a famine in the form which 

 causes most suffering to it. 



In their wild state most animals live under the 

 incubus of two sources of terror death by violence 

 from their natural foe or foes, and death by famine. 



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