February, 1910.] 



125 



Plant Sanitation. 



on " Dieback of Hevea " which is now in slower than was anticipated, Defoli- 



the press. The affected trees put out ation must to some extent check the 



new leaves when the rains ceased, growth of the tree, but beyond that 



though in some cases their recovery was there is no permanent injury. 



LIVE STOCK. 



IMPROVEMENT OF INDIAN 

 CATTLE. 



By Junglee, 

 (Prom the Indian Agriculturist. Vol. 

 XXXIV., No. 11, November, 1909.) 

 There seems to be an awakening 

 amongst the people of India as to the 

 state of their cattle, and more attention 

 is being paid to breeding. The people 

 have, hitherto, especially in North-Eas- 

 tern India, seemed too indifferent to take 

 trouble over their cattle. Over abund- 

 ance of fodder allows them to keep 

 large herds of degenerate animals, which 

 require little or no attention. These ani- 

 mals give a little milk, and just draw their 

 ploughs. This suffices for the owners' 

 wants, so why bother? These old ideas, 

 however, are slowly giving place to new, 

 especially close to mofussil towns and 

 where cultivation has covered the land, 

 and large areas of grazing land are 

 not available. The cultivating class 

 have been forced to realise the value of 

 good cattle. The Government with 

 their Agricultural Department have 

 helped to foster the spirit, and are doing 

 a great deal to improve the cattle by 

 importing animals from England, Aus- 

 tralia, and also from the North-West, 

 and the Punjab, into Bengal. These 

 imported cattle no doubt help a great 

 deal to improve the stock near the 

 Government Depots. But these animals 

 are not suited to be distributed among 

 distant villages, where large herds are 

 grazed. What the Government want to 

 get at are the villages right outside the 

 highly cultivated parts where there are 

 large areas of grazing with enormous 

 herds being bred. It is from these dis- 

 tant tracts that the milk and plough 

 cattle are drawn for the more thickly 

 populated parts. In these cattle dis- 

 tricts the highly bred-stall-fed beast 

 would soon die of starvation and want 

 of attention, besides imported cattle 

 are more liable to local diseases, from 

 which the local cattle are practically 

 free. India, though generally poor in 

 domesticated cattle, is the richest in the 

 world in their wild congeners, having 

 the buffalo and bison (Gaveous Garus 

 and Frontalis), the Tsaing (Bos Soon- 

 dacios) of Burma, besides sheep and goats 

 jn the higher ranges of the Himalayas. 



There are domesticated animals also 

 that have gone wild ; these are very 

 much hardier and larger than the local 

 domesticated animals. Such wild cattle 

 are found at Nellore in Madras, and 

 Baker mentions some on the Islands of 

 the Megna and Brahmaputra. 



The buffalo is indigenous to India, 

 being found wild in the districts of 

 Purnea, Malda, Diuajpur, parts of 

 Assam, in the Nerbudda Valley, and 

 Burma. The natives utilise the wild 

 herds and breed their domesticated 

 animals with the wild ones, the result 

 being a magnificent, powerful animal, 

 almost half as large again as the ordi- 

 nary village buffalo. This is very notice- 

 able in the Purnea district, where most 

 of the buffaloes are either directly des- 

 cended from the wild, or are half-bred. 

 Along the Kosi and low lands by the 

 Ganges near Manihar Ghat, there are 

 large herds of these known as Arni — 

 big grey animals 15 to 16 hands high 

 with long powerful horns. Across the 

 Ganges on the Sahebganj side the 

 buffaloes are quite a contrast to those 

 of the Arni, being the ordinary buffalo 

 only 12 to 13 hands high and in no way 

 as powerful. These Arni buffaloes are 

 very much sought after for heavy work 

 in sugar mills, etc. There is always a 

 cry that India possesses no draught ani- 

 mals capable of drawing our English 

 ploughs. These Arni buffaloes could 

 equal an English horse, and though not 

 as quick could easily drag an English 

 plough. On wet marshy ground, such 

 as is common in the Bengal paddy 

 fields, they would indeed be superior 

 to the horse. The same use is made by 

 the people of Assam of the wild herds, 

 and the animal produced is very power- 

 ful, though not as tall as the Purnea 

 one, — thicker set with shorter and 

 thicker horns, and black in colour. Of 

 course, these are only available where 

 there are wild herds, it being rather a 

 dangerous game sometimes to get the 

 tame cows away from the wild buffalo. 

 A wild bull in defence of his herd cares 

 neither for man nor beast and is a very 

 dangerous customer to tackle. And at 

 times the natives lose their cows for 

 months, but they generally come back 

 to their own herd. For improving the 

 breed, there is, besides, these wild ani- 

 mals, the Bikaneer curled horned buffalo, 



