116
DECCAN.
Hyderabad.
501. During the summer months, Nawab Vicar-ul-Umra Bahadur, Prime
Minister of the Hyderabad State, visited Simla, and I had the pleasure of an
interview with him. During the conversation, which turned mainly on horse-
breeding questions, in which he was greatly interested, he expressed a wish to
see, if possible, what was being done in Northern India; I therefore had the
pleasure of accompanying him and his suite to Babugarh, where I was able to
show him a very great number of Thoroughbred English, Arab, and other stal-
lions. Captain Westlake, the Superintendent of the Remount Depôt, kindly
showed him all the young stock; he was much impressed with all he saw and
asked me, if possible, to visit Hyderabad to confer with him on horse-breeding
matters; this I did in December last, when I was able, after careful considera-
tion, to bring to his notice the following facts.
His Highness the Nizam's Government maintains about 60 stallions which
are distributed in various districts, and also expends a large sum annually with
a view of fostering horse-breeding in the State, but as far as can be ascertained,
but little advantage is derived from the expenditure incurred.
I had the opportunity of conferring with Mr. Ali Abdullah and other
State officials, and the general opinion expressed was that few if any, good
mares are maintained, or that if they are, they are not brought for service by
the Government stallions; most of the Authorities differed as to the cause,
some being of opinion that the mares never did exist, whilst others were of
opinion that the mares are still to be found, but owing to the size of His High-
ness' Dominion, it is impossible for one man to visit each district and to work it
properly, which must be done, if horse breeding is to be sucessful.
502. By the report on Horse-Breeding Operations in His Highness the
Nizam's Dominion of 1883 to which are attached notes by the Director, Army
Remount Department, Brigadier General Sir C. Gough, and others, good mares
must have existed, we find that the numbers attending the Malegaon Fair were
increasing yearly, and that from 1878 to 1882. the numbers rose from 1,057 to
3,871, and the Superintendent then stated that he saw no reason why the num-
bers should not increase to 25,000; and he further stated that 500 horses would
be available for the British Government if required. The result of the Fair of
1894 was most disappointing, instead of the numbers having increased, they
fell from nearly 4,000 to under 1,000, and instead of a great number being
available for Military purposes, the Remount Agent, Ahmednagar, was only
able to obtain 10, and half these came from British territory.
To remedy this, the State has sanctioned the importation of about 200
Persian mares; this I consider to be only an artificial stimulus, and I further am
of opinion that efforts should be directed to improve the indigenous breed of
horses. In order to put horse-breeding on a more satisfactory basis, I recom-
mended :—
(a) That the question be given careful consideration and that operations,
on some recognised system, should be started in one or at the
most two districts at a time; from careful enquiries, I suggest-
ed the districts of Bhid and Aurangabad as likely to lead to
the best results.
(b) That, as I was informed that it was proposed to start an Education-
al Establishment for training Veterinary Assistants, I suggest-
ed that it should be located at Aurangabad; that Captain
Farrell, who was to be in charge, could supervise the horse-breed-
ing in these districts, and that this would enable him to
thoroughly train his students practically.
I was able to inspect the Stud Farm at Rajanpett where I inspected about
50 head of young stock, as, with all these Home Studs, little good will ever be
done here in a military point of view; there are many good ponies amongst
the young stock but very few that will ever make remounts.