2
slowly bearing fruit and that the confidence of the raiyats in their work
is on the increase. The number of deaths among inoculated cattle was
1,162 or 6 per cent. of the total.
Leaflets were freely distributed as in previous years, and lectures were
also delivered by the staff among the raiyats with regard to the care, manage-
ment and treatment of cattle. His Excellency the Governor notes with
satisfaction that the practice of talking to boys in primary schools in
Eastern Bengal by veterinary officers on animal husbandry, etc., has been
greatly appreciated by the villagers and trusts that the efforts of the
department to introduce this system throughout this province will meet
with success.
4. The veterinary assistants visited 14,571 villages and treated
75,657 cases during the year under report, the corresponding figures
for the two previous years being 14,438 villages and 81,986 patients and
12,084 villages and 67,511 animals, respectively.
5. All the stables and cattle byres in the Calcutta glanders area were
regularly inspected by the glanders staff. Altogether 49 horses were
seized and kept under observation, of which fifteen were destroyed from
glanders after Mallein test, seven died of glanders, and the remaining 27
were discharged as free from that disease.
6. In spite of the observations made in the Government resolutions
on the preceding years' reports there was little progress in the establish-
ment of new dispensaries, and the number now stands at 41 only, the same
as in the previous year. The number of patients treated at these dispensaries
during the year was 44,952 as against 53,692 in the previous year. The
decrease is reported to be principally due to the exclusion of the Sodepur
Pinjrapole Hospital from the list of veterinary hospitals and dispensaries
as there was no veterinary assistant surgeon employed in it during the
year.
7. The number of stud bulls maintained in the province during the
year under report was 176 against 159, 156 and 132 in the three preceding
years. The breed of cattle in Bengal is notoriously poor. As pointed out
by the Director, the lack of good breeding bulls constitutes a serious
drawback to the improvement of cattle In the Rangpur Cattle Farm an
improved breed of cattle, both for draught and milking purposes, has been
evolved. The bulla supplied from the farm are distinctly superior to
local build, whilst they have an advantage over imported stock on account
of their local origin. His Excellency the Governor trusts that the Veteri-
nary Department will co-operate with the Agricultural Department in
popularizing the use of the bulls of the Rangpur Cattle Farm for breeding
purposes and thereby assisting in the improvement of the local breed of
cattle. He also desires to impress upon the local bodies the importance of
the improvement of cattle by the larger provision of good stud bulls and
trusts that they will take early stops to increase the number of these
bulls.
8. The Director of the Civil Veterinary Department has again drawn
the particular attention of the local bodies to the pressing need for a
larger provision of funds and staff for the prevention of cattle diseases.
The value of the work of the department in relation to the live-stock in
Bengal on which the agricultural prosperity of the province chiefly
depends cannot be overestimated. The serious economic loss which would
have followed but for the services of the officers of the department can be
easily realised from the fact that out of over 2 lakhs of bovines inoculated
during outbreaks in the course of the year about 1,000 only died, whilst