140
Deterioration of Cattle in Certain Parts of India
the nutrition of the family, while maintaining the
fertility of their holdings and making a substantial
contribution to the maintenance of public health.
Gorrie [1937] has stated that the awful deteriora-
tion in the type of cattle wherever common grazing
persists as the usual practice is a most striking and
consistent feature of Indian animal husbandry.
This deterioration is seen at its worst in all dis-
tricts containing large areas of wild land, too steep
or too poor for cultivation, and, therefore, includes
the whole of the Western Himalayas and the many
ranges of lower hills further south. In these
common grazing areas almost every kind of live-
stock competes for a living and large migratory
flocks of sheep and goats which descend from the
high hills every autumn to the adjoining, plains,
like locusts in their number, cause sheer des-
truction of the available grazing. On the other
hand, better-known breeds of Indian cattle are
found in areas where there is practically no common
grazing ground left, e.g. dry areas of the Punjab
and where the people have been forced to rely
mainly upon stall-feeding and to concentrate upon
fewer and better animals. At the time when hay
ought to be made in the months immediately
following the monsoon, the cultivator is busy with
his autumn ploughing, so the cutting of grass is
inevitably delayed until only the dry bones of the
grass crop are left. It is not possible to alter the
agricultural calendar, so improvements appear to
lie along the lines of grass cultivation by contour
ridging and by any other means which keep the
grass green for a longer period. Shah [1939] has
stated that it is a well-recognized fact that the in-
tense over-grazing to which the ravines and other
grazing grounds in the United Provinces are sub-
jected prevents the maximum production of fodder,
and that the only way to increase the fodder supply
from uncultivated lands is to reduce the incidence
of grazing. In ravine areas, goats, in particular,
are most destructive to the natural vegetation.
The finest cattle in the Provinces are to be found in
districts like Meerut where the grazing grounds
are at a minimum and the worst cattle in districts
such as Jhansi where the grazing grounds are at a
maximum. It is of little use to spend money on
breeding bulls and improved breeds of cattle, un-
less the improved breeds and their progeny are
better fed. The only way to do this is to grow
more fodder on cultivated lands and to reduce
the intensity of grazing on uncultivated lands.
Aiyer and Kayasth [1931] have analysed the
grasses and fodders growing in different parts of
Central Provinces and Berar and have found that
the grasses are very poor in phosphoric acid,
calcium and nitrogen contents. The grasses
grown on heavy black soil are, however, richer in
mineral content than those grown on light soil.
The poor stunted growth of the eattle in Chhattis-
garh may be due to the phosphate deficiency in
the ration. They are of the opinion that the lime
deficiency may not be so pronounced as phosphate
deficiency, for jowar, kadbi, paddy straw and wheat
straw which form a good part of the ration con-
tain high proportion of lime. They have suggest-
ed that the addition of an oil-cake may make up
the phosphate deficiency and the lime or nitrogen
deficiency, if any, can be made up by the addition
of leguminous fodders, e.g. berseem, jowar, soyabean
kulthi, etc., in the ration. In the rice tract, the
rice polishing (kunda) which is rich in phosphoric
acid should not be wasted but utilized in feeding
to the cattle. In the wheat tract bhusa of the
leguminous crops should form a part of the ration
to the cattle. Iyer [1935] has shown that the
mineral composition of grasses may be affected by
the type of the soil, the species of grasses, maturing
and cultivation. Chaudhuri [1933] has reported
that calves which were stunted in growth improved
considerably in weight and condition after being
fed a mineral supplement.
Bhalerao [1934] has stated that in India there
are numbers of ailments of cattle which go un-
noticed and undiagnosed and which, although not
in all cases apparently serious, undermine the
health gradually and render them incapable of
serving humanity to their proper extent, while in
some cases they even take their toll of life. Such
diseases are usually caused through the agency of
worms which are parasitic in the various organs of
these animals. Although exact data are not
available at present in regard to the loss that is
actually caused by worms, it is certainly larger
than generally imagined. The Veterinary In-
vestigation Officers working under the Imperial
Council of Agricultural Research schemes have
discovered the existence of nutritional disorders,
e.g. osteomalacia, pica, infertility, eye-troubles etc.
and high incidence of parasitic infestations in
certain parts of India which include the notorious
tracts referred to in this note. The Council's
Helminthological schemes and the nutritional
schemes have thrown and will throw in due course
more light on these aspects of this vast problem of
deterioration of cattle. Carbery, Chatterjee and
Talapatra [1937] have carried out a fairly compre-
hensive series of experiments to determine the
mineral requirements of cattle in the rice growing
tracts in north-east India. The reuslts indicate
that aus straw is considerably superior to cmen
straw in minerals and protein and hence in general
feeding values, but both straws are poor in phos-
phate and slightly deficient in lime. The
phosphate might be conveniently supplied through
cake while a small supplement of chalk would make
up lime deficiency. Rice kura (bran) is very poor
in CaO and unsually rich in phosphate (over 6
per cent). The CaO and chlorine figures have