102 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



good men, but my experience of tliem in connection with breeding' 

 is very limited. 



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

 As already mentioned, when speaking of waste and pasture landa, the 

 export of wheat and cotton have increased enormously of late years. 

 This has militated considerably against breeding in many districts* 

 Formerly where one might easily find fifteen or twenty mares in a 

 village, now none or only one or two exist ; the reason being thait 

 more money is to be made out of grain, cotton, etc, than out of 

 horse rearing. The zamindar^, alive to his own interests, sells his 

 mares and puts his money into bullocks, well digging, etc., to raise 

 what will pay him best. If we could induce him to use his uares in the 

 plough, in drawing water for irrigation, etc., etc., instead of his non- 

 productive bullocks, an immense step would be taken in the right 

 direction. For various reasons, the chief of which is his intense 

 conservatism, nothing will persuade him to do this. There we have 

 one of the many difficulties to be contended with in India. The 

 zamindar keeps his mare simply to breed from, and with the excep- 

 tion of leading her in a wedding procession, or, occasionally riding 

 her at a walk from one village to another, never uses her. So, the 

 sale of her produce has to cover the expenses of her keep and leave 

 a margin of profit. As long as grass costs nothing and grain but 

 little, this was all very well, but now there is barely sufficient fodder 

 to be got off the land for the plough-bullocks and grass must be 

 bought. Grain too has gone up in price. Thus, as the mare does 

 nothing for her own keep, she becomes an expensive luxury instead 

 of a remunerative animal. If her produce does not sell for a good 

 price, dies, or she slinks a few times, she becomes ruinous and is 

 disposed of, and the zamindar, finding he has lost money, is very 

 chary of speculating in the breeding line again. 



Selection of Breeding Districts. — Having now shown some of the 

 difficulties which have to be contended with when breeding on a 

 large scale in this country, I will proceed to give my own ideas of 

 how such difficulties are to be overcome. 



Our object is to increase the bone, substance, and height of Indian 

 stock, in order to meet Army requirements, and the wants of the 

 general public, who now have to invest largely in Australians to get 



