PART I—IMPERIAL REPORT.
B.—REVENUE SECTION.
IV.—INSTRUCTION FARM.
236. Certain changes have been made during the year; these were con-
sidered necessary after my inspections of the two farms, the first of which was
held in August 1894.
237. It might be stated that one of the main objects of the instruction farm
was that of demonstrating the possibility of using brood mares for agricultural
purposes, thereby making them self-supporting. In theory no doubt this is
correct, but I fear that this will never be realised in India. In the first place
the climate is too trying to enable mares to stand the exposure to which bul-
locks are so well adapted, but again it must be remembered that the class of
mare to be met with in this country is of a light description and is therefore
unsuitable for heavy draught work.
238. The farm is divided into two portions :—
1st.—That attached to North-Western Provinces and Oudh Depôt, con-
sisting of 87 acres of land.
2nd.—That attached to the Punjab Depôt, consisting of 57 acres of
land.
In that portion belonging to North-Western Provinces, 51 acres were
under cultivation ; on this land there were 4 wells for irrigation purposes.
In the Punjab farm only 9¾ acres were under cultivation, the remainder
consisting of grass lands; on this farm only one well was necessary for irriga-
tion purposes.
239. It was deemed advisable to reduce the amount under cultivation in
the North-Western Provinces Depôt for two reasons; and with the sanction of
the Government of India, this was effected. The two reasons for the above,
reduction in the area under cultivation were :—
(a) In order not to interfere with the main object of the farm, viz.,
that all cultivation should be carried out by the farm mares;
to effect this, it was necessary to reduce their work materially.
Having inspected them at work in the plough and whilst work-
ing the wells, it was found that they were greatly distressed, and
the result of this over-work was that they either did not hold, that
they aborted, or that if they gave birth to foals, the foals did not
live. It was therefore hoped that the reduction of work, effected
by reducing the area under cultivation, would have the desired
effect, but, as will be shown hereafter, this hope was not realised.
(b) The second reason for the reduction was the cost of the cultivation of
dub grass, of which there were 22 acres; this entailed constant
irrigation, and the yield was so small that the hay obtained had
to be sold to the Imperial stallions at a fabulous rate to cover its
cost.
240. Whilst making the change indicated above, instructions were issued
that any experiments that were carried on before, in the raising of fodder crops,
were not to be interfered with; in fact, so important a matter was this consi-
dered, that orders were passed that these experiments were to be increased.
Discontinuance
of the Instruc-
tion and De-
monstration
classes.
241. Owing to the unsatisfactory results obtained, and further, owing to
the fact that these results were confirmed by experiments made by the Deputy
Commissioner, Kurnal, who endeavoured to work the Janesron Court of Wards
farm with the brood mares, but failed, and was compelled to re-purchase bul-
locks to carry out the work, it was considered advisable not to hold the instruc-
tion class held in January, but to await the results of the reduction in the
amount of land under cultivation.