February, 1912.] 



167 



Correspondence. 



comment, and it is requested that the 

 matter will be referred to in the 

 Editorial columns. 



I shall be obliged by your favouring 

 me with one copy of the issue in 

 which this matter is published, for 

 which I will gladly remit any expense 

 incurred thereby. 



Thanking you in anticipation, 

 Yours faithfully, 

 K, S. JASSAWALLA, 

 President- Founder, British Association 

 for the Protection of Indian Cattle. 



At a recent meeting of the Committee 

 of the British Association for the 

 Protection of Indian Cattle— an in- 

 fluential body lately formed in London— 

 the following aims and objects were 

 framed :— 



1. To prevent the unnecessary 

 slaughter of cattle in India with the 

 view of increasing the number and 

 improving the breed of the animals 

 employed for the cultivation of the 

 land. 



2. By this means to encourage the 

 agricultural development of the 

 country and so render the United 

 Kingdom less dependent upon foreign 

 countries for her raw material. 



3. To improve the general con- 

 dition and promote the more humane 

 treatment of cattle in India. 



Membership (which is free) is warmly 

 invited and those interested in the 

 welfare of this humane cause are re- 

 quested to communicate to the President 

 who will be most pleased to hear from 

 them at the address below. 



K. S. JASSAWALLA, 



President- Founder. 



45, Courthope Road, 

 Hampstead, N. W., 

 London. 



[Whilst heartily sympathising with the 

 main objects of this appeal, namely the 

 encouragement of agricultural develop- 

 ment through the improvement of 

 draught cattle, and the promotion of 

 the more humane treatment of beasts of 

 burden, we cannot help expressing the 

 gravest doubt whether the method pro- 

 posed in the first paragraph of the 

 memorandum would lead to any such 

 results if put into operation. 



The mere increase in the number of 

 cattle, unless accompanied by greatly 

 improved conditions of food supply and 

 general care, must lead of itself to 

 degeneration and not to improvement 

 ot the breed. 



Science has long established the fact, 

 well known to many generations of 

 breeders, that the chief means of per- 

 manent improvement either in plants or 

 animals is selection, that is to say, not 

 indeed the unnecessary slaughter of 

 cattle, but the slaughter of unnecessary 

 cattle. Such slaugher is moreover one 

 of the most fundamental conditions of 

 humane treatment, a fact which all 

 lovers of animals must desire to have 

 brought home to the native inhabitants 

 of Eastern countries. 



Thus, whilst agreeing that the pre- 

 vention of the unnecessary slaughter of 

 cattle is a laudable object, we feel bound 

 to emphasise the fact that this method 

 alone can have little effect either upon 

 the improvement of the breed or upon 

 the promotion of humane treatment.— 

 Ed.] 



" MYCOLOGY IN RELATION TO 

 ADMINISTRATION," 



Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 For the West Indies, Barbados, 



January 9, 1912. 

 Dear Sir,— I have to draw your atten- 

 tion to an article in the " Tropical 

 Agriculturist " for November, 1911, en- 

 titled " Mycology in Relation to Adminis- 

 tration " which is credited to the 

 "Louisiana Planter," Vol. XLVII, No. 

 4, 1911. 



2. As a matter of fact, this article 

 was written originally as an editorial 

 for the " Agricultural News," the fort- 

 nightly review of this Department, and 

 printed in the issue of this journal for 

 May 27, 1911. It was reproduced, with 

 acknowledgment, in the number of the 

 "Louisiana Planter " mentioned above, 

 and this paper has, inadvertently, been 

 given credit for it by you. 



3. In directing your attention to this 

 matter, I may say that I am pleased 

 to note that many articles from the 

 " Agricultural News " have been re- 

 produced in your journal in the past, 

 with acknowledgment, and that I shall 

 always be glad to see that they have 

 been of use to you, provided that 

 mention of the original source is made, 



I am, dear Sir, 



Youis faithfully, 



franois watts, 



Commissioner of Agriculture 

 for the West Indies. 

 [We tender our apologies to the Impe- 

 rial Commissioner of Agriculture for the 

 West Indies for the inadvertence, a re- 

 petition of which we shall endeavour 

 to avoid,— Ed.] 



