March, 1910.] 



229 Miscellaneous Useful Products. 



of grasses and other nitrogen robbers 

 by the constant growth of legumes. 

 If this fact had been recognized sooner, 

 perhaps there would not have been such 

 reckless exploitation of the rich soils 

 of the Mississippi basin. For forty 

 years farmers have lost sight of this, 

 and have taken off grain crops (all 

 grasses) continuously, and doubted if 



this practice would ever exhaust their 

 soils, because they were still productive 

 after the removal of twenty, thirty, 

 or forty crops. But now the effect is 

 evident ; farmers must learn from the 

 prairies round them one of the first 

 principles of permanent agriculture, 

 and introduce leguminous crops into 

 the farm rotation. 



LIVE STOCK. 



IMPROVEMENT OP CATTLE. 



By R. C Wood, 

 Deputy Director of Agriculture, 

 Northern Division. 



(From the Madras Agricultural 

 Calender, 1910.) 



This article is about cattle, and will 

 show the ryot how he may improve his 

 cattle by making up his mind to keep 

 fewer of them, so that those he has may 

 be better looked after and consequently 

 stronger and more useful. Anyone who 

 travels through the country by road 

 will see, especially in the mornings and 

 evenings, great herds of cattle going out 

 to graze or coming back to the village. 

 These herds consist of cows, heifers, old 

 bullocks and young bulls of all sizes and 

 qualities, who pick up a precarious living 

 in the fields and on the public grazing 

 lands belonging to the village. Except 

 in the rainy season, there is never suffi- 

 cient fodder for all, with the result that 

 these animals are generally very thin 

 and in poor condition. Why then are 

 they kept ? There are several reasons. 

 Firstly, they supply cowdung. This sub- 

 stance is unfortunately used for many 

 purposes besides that of manure. It 

 is made into bratties, dried and used 

 for fuel, smeared on walls, floors and 

 baskets and in a variety of other ways. 

 In many villages, too, the wealth and 

 general position of the ryot is gauged by 

 the number of cattle he keeps, so that 

 not to be the possessor of a number of 

 cattle, however bad their quality, is 

 looked upon as a disgrace, and it is 

 difficult to make people see what a false 

 idea this is. The value of the hides and 

 horns of these animals must also be 

 considered, though iu this respect they 

 are probably less valuable than the goat, 

 especially as the animals ate often 

 branded, a process which reduces the 

 value of the hides. The milk given by 

 the cows is extremely small in quantity, 

 and is generally given to the calf, though 

 in some cases the cows are milked before 

 they go out to graze, and often when 



grazing is good the ryot sends his 

 superior cattle, those he keeps for breed- 

 ing and for supplying his household with 

 milk, out along with the inferior animals. 

 Lastly, the animals when grown up, 

 often become the working and ploughing 

 cattle, especially in villages where the 

 grazing is comparatively good, though 

 in many cases they are too small to be 

 used in this way. We have seen then 

 that there are advantages attached to 

 this system, aud before condemning it, 

 we must consider whether the disadvan- 

 tages outweigh them. The main and 

 obvious fault that is at once evident is 

 that the food supply is insufficient, and 

 that more animals are being kept than 

 there is food for. So great is the demand 

 for food and so closely is all the available 

 grass eaten down, that in times of 

 scarcity even the working cattle are 

 starved or insufficiently fed. This is 

 disadvantageous in two ways. First, 

 every animal at some time in its life is 

 improperly nourished, and if once an 

 animal suffers severely from starvation, 

 especially when young, it can never grow 

 into a sound healthy strong bullock or a 

 good milking cow. The secret of breed- 

 ing good cattle is to keep their growth 

 steadily progressing, without a check at 

 any time. Furthermore, this very close 

 grazing reduces the fertility of the land 

 in many ways, by (a) lessening the 

 quantity of organic matter which ought 

 to be ploughed into the fields, (b) keeping 

 the natural vegetation down, and there- 

 by lessening the amount of material 

 which could be used as firewood and 

 thus permit more of the cowdung to be 

 used as manure, and (c) keeping the land 

 bare and thus subject to wash in times 

 of heavy rainfall. 



A second great defect in this system is 

 that careful breeding, that is the making 

 of suitable cattle in order to produce 

 good offspring, is prevented. The village 

 grazing grounds are public, and every 

 one has a right to send his cattle 

 there. The custom of not castrat- 

 ing bulls— in some districts not at all, 

 in others not until after maturity— 



