Live Stock. 



230 



[March, 1910. 



results in cows being covered by unsuit- 

 able and immature bulls, and thus tends 

 to reduce the general standard of the 

 village cattle. 



The third great risk in this system is 

 that disease is very easily spread and 

 very difficult to check when once it gets 

 into a village. A man brings a cow from 

 another village, which may already be 

 suffering from rinderpest or some other 

 disease, but which does not yet show it, 

 and this cow on being turned out in the 

 public grazing lands may infect many 

 of the village cattle and cause a tre- 

 mendous loss to the village before the 

 disease is stamped out. It will be seen 

 that the disadvantages very consider- 

 ably outweigh the advantages, and that 

 the system is not a gcod one. How may 

 it be stopped ? Reduce the number of 

 cattle and improve their quality. The 

 ryot must have bullocks to cultivate his 

 fields, and if fewer animals are kept, 

 then they must be able to do better 

 work. They need not necessarily be 

 larger or fatter animals, but must be 

 well formed, with good chests, straight 

 and strong legs and well shaped feet. 

 Such will never be obtained if all the 

 cattle are permitted to graze together, 

 and the young male stock are left uncas- 

 trated. Under the present arrange- 

 ments, the level of the common herds is 

 so low that no one cares how the animals 

 are bred. This is a great mistake. If a 

 Brahminy bull is kept, he should be 

 picked with the utmost care, and on no 

 account should a badly made animal be 

 used for the purpose. Having decided 

 on him, all the rest of the male stock in 

 the village shoidd be tied up under 

 control or castrated bafore they are 

 one year old. It is supposed that if this 

 operation is deferred until they are 

 three or four years old, the animals will 

 be stronger, but there is no truth in this. 

 The operation of mulling or crushing the 

 testicles is often improperly performed ; 

 it is better to remove them entirely. If 

 the numbers of his cattle are to be 

 reduced, the owner must see to it that 

 all his cows are very useful and able to 

 breed good working cattle, which will 

 plough his lands, or work his mhote as 

 efficiently as the cattle he sometimes has 

 to purchase at great cost from other 

 districts. These cows should not be kept 

 too fat, and should be allowed some 

 excercise every day, if possible. 



To conclude, it will generally be ad- 

 mitted that the best cattle in Southern 

 India come from Ongole, and yet this 

 district has no peculiar advantages in 

 the size or the quality of its public 

 grazing lands. It is the custom, how- 

 ever, for each ryot to keep his own 



cattle tied up or grazing in his own 

 fields, while if they need grass, it is cut 

 and brought to them. The breeding 

 bulls are carefully picked, and the cows 

 are never allowed out in large herds 

 along with inferior bulls. The calves 

 are fed well when young. 



If these customs are introduced into 

 other parts of the country, there is little 

 doubt that improvement would rapidly 

 follow. 



RINDERPEST OR CATTLE PLAGUE. 



By F. R. Brandt, 

 Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer. 



(From the Agrictdtural Journal of 



British East Africa, Vol. II., Pt. 3, 

 October, 1909.) 



Definition — A special and highly 

 contagious fever, characterized by sud- 

 den invasion, rapid advance, rise of 

 temperature, constitutional disorder, 

 congestion of all mucous surfaces es- 

 pecially of the digestive tract, and an 

 early and high mortality. Animals of the 

 bovine species are most highly suscep- 

 tible ; antelopes, sheep, goats and swine 

 are to a lesser extent. 



History. — In the first century it was 

 introduced into Western Asia by the 

 Mongols, and since then has had a per- 

 manent home in China, India, and the 

 Steppes of Russia. In 376 A.D. the 

 Western movement of the Huns carried 

 the plague from the Black and Caspian 

 Seas to western Europe. Since that 

 date the disease has followed in the 

 wake of every European war in which 

 Eastern natives were involved, or which 

 necessitated the use ' of cattle from 

 Eastern Europe. In this way it spread 

 over the whole of Europe, reaching 

 England in 1714, when the stamping out 

 method was adopted with success. The 

 war of the Austrian succession 1740 

 brought about a spread of Cattle Plague 

 which caused a loss of more than 3,000,000 

 head of cattle in Europe. In the latter 

 half of the eighteenth century another 

 outbreak overran the whole of Europe 

 except Norway, Sweden and Spain and 

 carried off 20,000,000 head of cattle. The 

 wars of Napoleon again brought about 

 serious losses from Rinderpest. Since 

 1840, it is to the extension of Commerce, 

 rapid transport, development of manu- 

 factures and. consequent increased de- 

 mand for beef, rather than to war, 

 that outbreaks of Rinderpest have oc- 

 cured. 



In 1865 it was brought to England by 

 a cargo of cattle from the Baltic, It 

 speedily spread all over England but 



