100 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



etc., are cheap, where kurbi and bhoosa are plentiful, where such 

 grasses as Dub [Cynodon Badylon), Aujana {Pennisetutn Cenddoides), 

 Sanwak {Panicum Crus-Galli), Makra {Panieum Egijptiacum), Jurgah 

 {Andropogon Annulatus), Kewai {Panicum Cilare), etc., etc., flounsh, 

 there we can raise big horses. The young stock are well fed. The 

 climate and soil favourable for such crops are also favorable for 

 horses. 



Again, where scanty crops and coarse unnutritious grass only are 

 obtainable, we can raise only scant crops of horses. And these, 

 though they may be good of their kind, and, for hardiness and 

 endurance, superior to their better fed brethren, will never grow to 

 the same size. 



■4. Extent of Waste or Pasture Lands. — Of late years owing to 

 the immense increase of the export trade in grain, its cultivation' 

 has received a powerful stimulus. 



Hence, lands that a few years ago were lying waste and only 

 used for the grazing of cattle and other stock are now put under 

 the plough, and produce wheat and barley instead of bullocks, cows^ 

 sheep, and horses. It was always difficult to induce the horse- 

 owners to allow sufficient liberty to their stock, but now-a-days, over 

 a very large part of the country, liberty is impossible, as there are no 

 pastures to allow them to run on. Where grass could be had for 

 the cutting, it is now rather an expensive luxury, for, instead of 

 more or less extensive maidans in the neighbourhood of every village, 

 we have square miles of grain and cotton, and the grass growing on 

 the bunds and paths that intersect these fields is jealously guarded 

 by the owners, who can barely get enough of it to feed the bullocks 

 they require for their ploughs and wells. Owing to this too the 

 question of grass supply for Arm}' horses is daily becoming a more 

 serious one, and Government has had to face the difficulty by allotting 

 ^rass lands to the various mounted branches in the neighbourhood 

 of Military Cantonments. 



.5. Habits and customs of the people. — The tastes, castes, 

 manners and customs of the inhabitants of a district have a great 

 deal to say to the number and quality of the horse stock they r-aise. 

 Many castes have a natural taste for horses, and, although their 

 ideas on equine matters but rarely accord with ours, still they make 



