HORSE-BREEDING IN INDIA. 99 



needs of our requirements, starting with the class of dams described 

 above ? '•* To answer this question, the following points must be 

 considered, as they affect the various districts : — 



1. Climate. 



2. Soil. 



3. Nature of crops. 



4. Extent of Waste or Pasture Lands. 



5. Poverty, wealth, habits, and customs of the inhabitants. 



6. Will horse growing pay better than grain or cotton growing? 



1. Climate. — Much depends on climate. A dry, warm climate 

 is undoubtedly favourable for the development of equiues, 

 and could the necessary nutritious grains and grasses be grown 

 under such conditions, there would be no hesitation in at once 

 selecting countries like Arabia, Afghanistan, Sind, etc., as the 

 best breeding grounds. Unfortunately dry heat means generally a 

 scanty water-supply, and deficiency of forage and gi'ain. The result 

 being that the young stock do not get enough to eat, and never grow 

 to any size. On the other hand, a damp, warm climate is fatal. 

 Bengal, many parts of the Madras Presidency, the greater portion 

 of the Indian coast, are eminently unsuitable to breeding. As a 

 rough practical rule, we may say, that where rice flourishes horse 

 breeding will not. The same rough rule applies I am told to tobacco. 



2. Soil. — Damp, marshy soil i& unfavorable to the rearing of 

 good stock. Horses brought up on such land are soft and washy, 

 their bones spongy and wanting in hardness, feet large, flat, and the 

 horn soft. Well-drained, light land, rather sandy is the best we 

 can have. Between these two extremes we get, of course,, all varie- 

 ties ; but, as a general rule, the drier and better drained the land, 

 the more adapted is it for our purpose. The presence of lime in the 

 soil is indispensable for young stock. Bone is made up largely of 

 this substance and, if it does not exist in the soil, the herbage cannot 

 contain it ; as a result, the bone of animals reared in lands deficient 

 in lime, is wanting in earthy constituents and is too soft to be of 

 any use. Not uncommonly such soft bone bends and we get crooked 

 legs, etc., etc., in fact, ricketts. 



3. Nature of Crops. — The nature of the crops in a district have 

 much to say to the productiou of horses. Where barley, chemiah, 



