GOVERNMENT OF BIHAR AND ORISSA.
REVENUE DEPARTMENT.
AGRICULTURE.
Ranchi, the 27th September 1913.
RESOLUTION No. 6611R.
READ—
The Annual Report of the Civil Veterinary Department in Bihar and Orissa for the year
1912-13 with a review by the Director of Agriculture.
The Superintendent's report was received by the Director of Agriculture
more than three weeks after the due date. The explanation which has been
offered of this delay is inadequate and Government hope that care will be
taken to submit the annual report punctually in future years.
2. Mr. D. Quinlan was in charge of the Department as Superintendent
throughout the year. The temporary arrangement whereby his headquarters
were located at Bhagalpur from July 1912, has caused some administrative
inconvenience and will require reconsideration. Mr. Quinlan spent 250 days
on tour, during which he visited nearly all the districts of the province. He
has proposed that another Imperial Officer be deputed to assist him in his
inspection work, but Government are unable to say at present whether this
change is necessary and they await the report on the subject promised by the
Director of Agriculture.
3. The existing arrangements for the recruitment of the subordinate staff
of the Department have been condemned alike by the Superintendent and the
Director and are eminently unsatisfactory. Government attach much impor-
tance to the suggestion that future recruitment should bo from the agricultural
rather than the clerical classes and they hope that the efforts that are being
made to secure this object and to improve the practical side of the training
will be fruitful of result. Government agree with the Director that extension
of the success of the Department is to be looked for in this direction rather
than in an increase of the pay and prospects of the subordinate staff.
4. There was a decided improvement in the reporting of cattle disease during
the year and the Lieutenant-Governor in Council notices with satisfaction that
this result is attributed as much to the increased interest taken in the matter
by District Officers and the Police as to improvements of method. The returns,
however, are still believed to be far from complete and it is hoped that the
subject of improved reporting will continue to receive attention.
5. The chief causes of cattle mortality were rinderpest and Haemorrhagic
Septicaemia. The latter disease was responsible for more deaths than all
other diseases taken together, and Government therefore regard with peculiar
interest the experiment which has been recently initiated to combat it in
the Chota Nagpur Division through the agency of locally trained inoculaters.
No effort must be spared to render the experiment a success.
6. The total number of preventive inoculations performed by the Staff
of the Department during the year was 22,124, an advance of over 6,000
on the figures of the previous year. Should the experiment to which allusion
has been made in the preceding paragraph prove a success, there will be a
notable advance in these figures during the present year. His Honour in
Council views with satisfaction the assistance which has been accorded to the
Department by the leaders of the Hindu religion in North Bihar and Orissa
in combating prejudice against inoculation through the agency of local
Pandits.