5
last winter more land was cleared at Ritani, and 39 maunds of Jowar seed
from Babugarh has been obtained and put in partly at Ritani and partly at
Muktesar, and is coming up well. The ploughing is done by the experimental
cattle, while the Jamadar supervises all the cultivation under the guidance of
the Assistant Bacteriologist, to whom great credit is due for his work in develop-
ing the cultivation. A small quantity of several hill crops are being tried as
an experiment on some of the Laboratory land, so that any which are successful
and suitable for fodder in place of grass, which is only obtainable with great
difficulty, will be planted more extensively next year.
10. Reservation of the Muktesar Forest.—Dr. Lingard having applied
for the reservation of the forest which covers almost all the land taken
up for the Laboratory, the Forest Settlement Officer visited Muktesar in Febru-
ary to meet the villagers who might be affected by such a measure. I went
round the whole of the boundary with him in the course of three days, and
agreed to the neighbouring villagers being permitted to retain rights of grassing
for their cattle and for dead wood on certain of the outlying portions of the
property, which the Settlement Officer considered should in fairness be allowed
them, leaving the whole of the more central portion of the forest to be reserved,
and orders were passed on these lines. As the necessary three months, during
which appeals from the decision given may be lodged, have now passed without
my receiving notice of any being sent in, I presume that this arrangement, which
is both advantageous to the Laboratory and fair to the villages, has been con-
firmed, and the forest authorities are being communicated with on the subject
of the necessary forest-guards. This measure, which will prevent the cattle of
the villages coming on to the central portions of the Laboratory land, is all the
more necessary now that rinderpest work is being carried on in order to pre-
vent the disease being carried to the neighbouring parts, and the settlement of
the question is very satisfactory.
11. Work now carried on in the Laboratory.—During the last four
months the preparation of certain bacterial products, which are of therapeutic
value in veterinary practice, has been undertaken.
Mallein has been made and is now being tested, and it is hoped that several
thousand doses will be available within a short time, and as large a quantity as
is found by experience to be necessary will in future be prepared and kept in
stock at the Laboratory.
Tuberculin is also being made, and it is hoped that arrangements may
be made for the cattle of dairies and other places being tested with this material,
as the amount of tubercular disease in Indian cattle does not appear to be very
accurately known, although tubercular disease among human beings is only too
common in this country, part of which may póssibly be caused through infection
from the milk of tuberculous cattle. It is worthy of note, in this connection,
that it was not until the use of tuberculin on a large scale was introduced into
England and other countries that the extreme prevalence of this disease among
cows was discovered, while it is only by the free use of this reagent that herds
can be freed from the disease and the absolute safety of the milk in this respect
ensured.
The investigation of Surra has been continued as far as time would permit;
and as from recent work of the Tsetse-fly Committee of the Royal Society,
which has just been published, it appears more than ever probably that this
latter disease and Surra are identical, some of the work on Tsetse-fly disease which
has been carried out by that Committee is now being tested in the case of Surra,
in order to obtain further evidence as to the identity or otherwise of the two
diseases ; for it is evident that if they can be proved to be one and the same
disease, all the work that has been done on the one affection will be applicable
to the other, and the increased knowledge may possibly lead to important
methods of prevention, if not of cure.
As the important rinderpest experiments that are briefly summarised in
paragraphs 12 to 33 of this report demanded undivided attention and the almost
constant presence of the Imperial Bacteriologist at the Laboratory, the question
of Ludhiana disease could not be taken up, but it is hoped that the former work
may be sufficiently advanced to allow of this being undertaken during the next
cold weather.
A brief visit was paid to Roorkee and arrangements have been made for
material being sent to the Laboratory for examination in the event of any cases of
" Roorkee disease " occurring, while if the disease becomes at all prevalent the