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where it was possible to make comparisons. This matter has been made very much more simple the last few
years, as stock got by the same horses in the Deccan and Sind are running together under identically the same
conditions in the Depot paddocks and can be compared day by day. The question is a most interesting one,
and I can only attribute the extraordinary difference to the large admixture of Arab blood in the Deccani
mare, and after years of experience I find that working on certain lines you can be perfectly sure of breeding
an animal which possesses a fixity of type that does not exist in other parts of India, and that a mare
bred on these lines can be relied on if mated with a Thoroughbred, to throw true to her type year after
year with practically little variation except increase in size. I do not know of any other part of India of which
the same can be said, and mares, although covered by the same horse, will one season produce shapely off-
spring and the next an awkward ungainly colt resembling neither sire or dam. This state of affairs is
no doubt due to the fact that at no period of its existence has the Deccan ever been contaminated with coarse
blood, and that its mares are more or less pure, whereas in other parts of India it is impossible to say to
what coarse, common and remote ancestor your mare is going to throw back to. The drawbacks to the Deccan,
however, are very great; it contains few mares, poor owners, and is very liable to famine all of which militate
against any marked progress ever being made in horse-breeding and the work of years is thrown back by a
single famine such as the one experienced last year.
If the causes of rejection are carefully analysed, it will be found that they work out very satisfactorily and to a
great extent prove that the buying of young stock in this part of India in expert hands need not be such a lottery
as is commonly supposed, more especially when it is taken into consideration that stock which do not quite realize
expectations as far as height is concerned for British Cavalry, can also be sent to Native Cavalry, providing care has
been exercised in their purchase and they are suitable in other ways. Out of the number rejected, one was a chance
get received from the Madras Lancers, one was issued to the 20th Hussars from the Hapur Depot found unsuitable
and returned to this Depot to be sold, 3 cast for accidents and unsoundness, and 2 undersized, which realized at
auction Rs. 385 each. These figures further analysed, show that this Depot was only answerable for 2 animals that
did not grow sufficiently to enter either branch of the service, yet, were good enough at 3½ years of age to realize
the fair price of Rs. 385 each. Accidents and unsoundness must occur, and therefore cannot be compared in this
table.
79. Although Veterinary-Captain Morgan claims great success for the
Ahmednagar Depôt I feel convinced that the Government of India will agree with
me that such has not been obtained. The intention of the Remount Department
in purchasing young stock is solely with a view of producing horses fit for service
with British Cavalry ; with the production of horses for issue to Native Cavalry
they are not concerned. If therefore, we add the one horse issued to Royal
Artillery and the 2 issued as chargers, we find that of the total issued only 44.6
reached the standard fit for British Troops, or in other words that 55.4 of those
issued were failures.
80. I fully agree that the first cross with the Arab is too small for British
Cavalry, but I am glad to see the opinion which I have always held in Northern
India, that the basis of our operations should be Arab blood, is borne out in
Bombay.
81. The fact that one horse bred in the paddocks turned out sufficiently
good to be issued to Royal Artillery can, in my opinion, not be held out as
an argument for breeding in the Remount Depôts, a system against which Govern-
ment has already given its decision.
82. Veterinary-Captain Morgan's sweeping statements, as to the comparison
to be drawn between stock bred in the Deccan and other parts of India, is mislead-
ing. In the first place this Officer is scarcely in a position to offer an opinion as
he has not had the opportunity of judging of the class of stock got in Upper India,
and his comparison between stock obtained by the same sires in the Deccan and
Sind scarcely coincides with his description of the young stock exhibited at the
Jacobabad Show. In this article he describes the Sind stock as high on the leg,
flat sided, upright on their joints, in many cases unsound, and whose hind legs,
though perfectly straight when bought, gradually get crooked as they grow older.
When remarking generally on the young stock, as exhibited at Jacobabad, he
describes it as "very good, shapely and well grown," and makes identical remarks
on the eight head purchased by the Remount Agent. These opinions, differing as
they do so materially, are hard to reconcile.
83. The questions raised in the above extract bearing on that of horse-
breeding generally, call for certain comments which I would have refrained
from making, being controversial in character, but I feel it necessary to state that
I cannot understand Veterinary-Captain Morgan's allusion to " coarse blood."
He evidently is alluding to the Norfolk Trotter or Hackney strain, and he states
that at no period of its existence has the Deccan ever been contaminated by
coarse blood, and that its mares are more or less pure, still, when we refer to the
statistics given at the commencement of the extract above given, we find that 50
per cent. of Norfolk Trotter stock was issued to British Cavalry, 25 per cent. to
Native Cavalry, and 25 per cent. were rejected. This shows that the Deccan must
have been supplied with Norfolk Trotters in former years as we know it was.