December i, 1889.] TB€ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
385 
CHILAW : COCONUT PLANTING. 
A magnificent piece of jungle is shortly to be put 
up for sale at the Kacbchen and will doubtless find 
bidders among; the wealthy Moormen of the district, 
though it is said that a European Company is now 
being formed to buy it. For coconuts, more desirable 
land could scarcely be fouud, and the plantations in 
its vicinity are likely to bring in early and handsome 
returns to their fortunate proprietors. Our worthy 
A. G-. A. is giving great satisfaction and taking a good 
deal of pains to promote healthy recreation, such as 
cricket, tennis, &c, among the townsfolk. — Gor. 
THE SCARCITY AND* WANT OF CATTLE 
IN INDIA. 
It was asserted lately by Sriman S.vami that in 
former days each Hindu possessed about 80 or 100 cattle, 
but ha did not say whence he derived his informatioa, 
or explain why so large a number of cattle were to ba 
found in India after it ceased to be a pastoral, and 
rose to the rank of an agricultural country. He stated 
that for agricultural purposes a great number of cattle 
are absolutely necessary, and that agriculturalists in 
India possess on au average only half a cow ahead, 
whereas in England and America they have 35 and 49 
cattle respectively per head. The Indian average he 
obtained by dividing the number of cattle in India 
(30,000,000) by the agriculturalists proper, who number 
56 per cent, of the whole p ipulatiou and therefore 
amount to about 35,000,000 male adults. There seems 
something wrong with the arithmetic here ; but even if 
it ward not so, it is not plain how these figures help the 
argument, for English and American bovine cattle are 
not kept for agricultural purposes. 
Excluding the Lieutenant-Governorship of Beugal, for 
which statistics are not available, the total Government 
assessed area in square miles in India is 474,600 of 
whioh 222,032 are cultivated, 101,541 are cultivable, and 
83,887 are uncultivable. Even the area at present 
cultivated gives an average holding to each adult male 
agriculturist of 4 acres, but the difficulty is that land 
is taken up for cultivation in contiguous blocks, of which 
little or nothing is left for pasture, and thus, though 30 
per cent, of cultivable land is uncultivated, it is too 
distant to support the cattle on the cultivated land, 
which is thus not cultivated, as it might be with a suffi- 
ciency of well-fed eattle. In some parts of India, there- 
fore there are more husbandmen than the land can 
feed ; in other parts vast tracts of fertile soil still await 
the cultivator. If the Indian races would but migrate 
to tracts wbere spare land still abounds, and thus allow 
tracts of pasturage and fuel reserves to be interspersed 
with the ordinary crops in the parts now under cultiva- 
tion, any number of additional cattle necessary might 
be raised, and they will also be doing more than the 
utmost efforts of Government can accomplish to pre- 
vent famine, and to enable them to live in plenty and 
comfort. The introduction of fodder crops as a regular 
stage in the agricultural course might mitigate some of 
the evils for a time, but would not be a sufficient remedy. 
Even with a more even distribution of pasture, this 
precaution is necessary in such a climate as prevails 
in most parts of India. Over a great part of the Empire, 
unless this precaution is taken, the mass of the cattle 
must be starved for six weeks every year. The hot 
winds roar, every green thing disappears, no hot 
weather forage is grown ; last year's fodder is generally 
consumed in feeding the cattle employed in raising the 
spring orops ; and all the husbandman can do is just 
to keep his poor brutes alive on the chopped leaves of 
the few trees and shrubs he has access to, the roots of 
grass and herbs that he digs out of the edges of the 
fields, and the like. In good years, he just succeeds ; 
in bad years, the weakly oattle die of starvation. But 
then comes the n in. Within a week the burning sands 
are carpoted with rank herbage, the cattle eat and 
overeat; and ten millions, according to Mr. Hume, 
worth 74 millions sterling, die annually of diseases 
springing out of this sta rvation followed by repletiou 
with immatare herbage. However great a failure 
model farms may have been, that at Saidapet proved 
that dry orops oan be profitably oultivated for fodder 
at all seaaona of the year, Thoaa most to be recom- 
49 
mended are yellow cholum, guinea grass, and horse 
gram. Sugar-cane and rice also yield excellent fodder 
when cut green. 
There is plenty of land in In iia for the whole popula- 
tion. What is required is not tha diminution of the 
people by emigrauon, but their more equal distribution. 
If British India were insufficient, there would still be 
the native States/' It is not merely the paucity o( cattle 
thit impedes agriculture, but their miserably poor con- 
dition, due, among other things, to the wa it of selection 
in breeding. This also is a subject on which the Swami 
might preach with profit. Before leaving the Swami's 
data to consider his conclusions, we must ask what 
became of the surplus agricultural produce in the days 
when the Indian agriculturalist possessed from 80 to 100 
cattle 1 With less than one head of cattle to eaoh agri- 
culturalist, and notwithstanding famine and the absence 
of sanitation the present population does not decrease, 
but is steadily progressive. Supposing the people in 
the good old times to have consumed twioe as much of 
their produce as their descendants, twice the rate of 
cattle possessed by the latter would have suffi ed for that 
purpose, and they would still have hadnea ly all their 80 
to 100 catcle available for the proiuction ofiromSOto 
100 times as much as they wanted for themselves. 
VVhat.became of this enormous power ? Where were the 
markets it supplied ? How was it profitably m untamed ? 
From simply urging the prohibition of the slaughter 
of cows, the Swami has formulated four other de- 
mands, though still maintaining that his first, which 
is now his fifth proposition to be the measure of the 
most urgent necessity. How the prevention of the 
slaughter of 100,000 cattle consumed by European 
troops can be more urgent than the prevention of 
ten millions of cattle dying of preventable disease 
is not easy to understand. As some small help 
towards the prevention of disease, the Swami's 
first two demands deserve consideration. These de- 
mands are : " To open Veterinary Colleges in every 
district in order that even the poor ryots may be 
enabled to learn to administer medicine for cattle 
diseases," and " to have a veterinary hospital attached 
to each college." There can be little doubt that when 
au indigenous staff is obtainable, veterinary institu- 
tions will be fostered by Government in every district. 
Much has already bsen done to bring about suoh a 
state of things. At present the alumni of the Madras 
College of Agriculture at. Saidapet have been sufficient 
only to man the College itself and to furnish 
Stock Inspectors to 16 districts. The establishment of 
hospital pounds was authorised by Ma Iras Act II of 
1866, but for want of a trained stiff the Act has 
remained very much of a dead letter, and recently 
more so than was necessary. When the Department of 
Agriculture was re-established under Lord Bipon's 
Government, the necessity for the diffusion of veteri- 
nary knowledge was recognised, but, as the operations 
of the Department, at all events in the Madras Presi. 
dency, appear to be languishing for want of personal 
interest in them on the part of the superior staff, 
a memorial on the subject cannot fail to be of use by 
resuscitating the interest of Government in iti The 
Swami's third demand is: "To repeal the Forest Act, 
which has closed all the grass land and pasture against 
the free entranoe of oattle, leaving open all the 
unsurmountable high peaks, which has prevented the 
poor ryots from freely entering a forest, and cutting 
down a small tree wherewith to make of ploughs and 
other implements, and thus has made him too poor to 
feed his cattle from his pocket; and which by creating 
a scaroity in the supply of firewood has caused the ryots 
to use dried cowdung for firewood, and has thus 
eventually diminished the supply of manure." Besides 
being destructive of the arguments for the fifth pro- 
posal, this sentence contains considerable inaccuracies. 
The Forest Act did not close all grass land and pasture 
against either the free or restricted entrance of cattle, 
aud it left more than the inaccessible peaks open. It 
does not prevent the poor ryot from entering the forests^ 
with permission, as freely as ever, for the purpose of 
* Upper Burma could support 50 to 100 times its 
present population.— Ed, 
