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189. Our kind reception by the Chiefs and the keenness displayed by them
in all matters connected with horse-breeding will, I trust, lead to useful results;
and I hope that, should occasion arise, they will avail themselves of the help and
services of this department.
Fodder Crops.
190. Fodder crops grown on a small scale by me in Ahmednagar.
191. Guinea Grass.—Guinea grass roots and primers on its cultivation
have been supplied by me to the following villages and stallion stands :—Mále-
gaon, Belgaum, Indi, Parántij, Dhond, Karmála, Kopargnon, Hyderabad, Kaira,
Indápur, Bárámati, Sángola, Yeola, Nevása ; and I trust in the course of a few
years to spread this plant and make it thoroughly popular in places where up to
date it has never been seen or its value known.
192. Lucerne.—Successive blights have attacked this crop during the year
and it has suffered very severely. Men growing for the rearing depôt in the
immediate neighbourhood have suffered very considerable loss owing to these
blights.
193. Lathyrus Sylvestris.—This crop was kept until August 1893, when
the results were so unsatisfactory as to determine me to abandon it entirely, as
the out-turn was out of all proportion to the expense and labour incurred.
194. Salt Bush.—The seeds although carefully sown did not germinate.
I saw the plant at Quetta where it was thriving and just on the point of seeding.
195. Hariali Grass.—The results of the Trench system have been most
satisfactory and yielded good crops throughout the year, being irrigated twice a
week. The experimental beds which were laid down by me are now two years
old; one is 96 feet × 30 feet and the other 70 feet × 30 feet. Owing to my
continued absence from home, I have been unable to personally check the results;
but the amount reported to me as having been cut from these two beds has,
during the year, considerably exceeded 15,000 lbs. The last crop cut from the
smaller of these two beds and weighed by me green without wet or moisture
was exactly 753 lbs. This grass, when dry, makes the very best hay obtainable
in this country. I have laid down 28 more beds this year. As the system is so
simple, entailing little expense, I feel sure it is well worthy of further develop-
ment in this Presidency.
196. General Remarks.—With reference to paragraph 28 of my annual
report of 1892-93, His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief deputed Colonel
Stevens, 3rd Bombay Cavalry, to purchase remounts for the three Bombay
Cavalry Regiments. That officer accompanied me to the Shikárpur Show in
Sind and purchased 36 horses, which were equally divided between the three
regiments, and in his report remarks "that the horses for the Second Lancers
and Poona Horse will average Rs. 294-12.0", at which price, I venture to think,
they are superior to anything that can usually be obtained in the Bombay market
of the same age and size.
197. Stallion Stables.—The depôt and service stallions in the Ahmednagar
District are still located in one corner of the Remount Depôt. A site was
selected, plans and estimates submitted, but I regret returned with a remark
"that unless a more economical plan be submitted, the matter must be deferred."
I would again urge upon Government the necessity of building new stallion
stables, as the experience of the past year only further convinces me that they
are unhealthy to a degree and quite unfit for the accommodation of valuable
horses. All the stallions without a single exception have suffered from attacks
of fever. When taken sick they are immediately removed to an outside shed
where two temporary boxes are arranged. The horses recover and are sent
back to their boxes when the same thing happens again. Every precaution has
been taken, great care exercised in the stable management, and yet the horses
suffer from this low form of fever which debilitates and reduces them in condition.
During the last cold weather, whilst I was on tour, the best Arab I purchased
this year died of fever, which lasted over three months and could only have been
contracted in these stables. That the boxes are at fault and not the surround-
ings, there can be no doubt, as the last row of remount stables is only some 30