ANNUAL REPORT ON THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPART-
MENT IN THE PUNJAB DURING 1910-11.
NOTE BY THE DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURE.
PUNJAB VETERINARY COLLEGE.
Future of the College.
1. The year has been one of expectation and disappointment. The
Government of India has decided that the college must
be enlarged so as to serve as the sole veterinary college
for the whole of Northern India. This means more professors, more
laboratories and more space. Schemes have been drawn up to provide
all these, and have been, or will be, submitted to Government. But dis-
appointment will continue so long as the selection of a site for the enlarged
college is barred by difficulties, born not of any special fastidiousness on
the part of the Veterinary Department, but of the prevalent uncertainty
as to the scope of the King Edward Memorial Scheme. As the greater
part of the present site of the college will almost certainly be handed over
to the Medical College, the cost of the new site will presumably fall for the most
part on the Medical Budget or on the Memorial Fund.
Report on standard of
College.
2. As to the details of the work of the college, I need not do more
than quote from the report of the examiners :—" The
Board is of opinion that the students generally are
lacking in practical knowledge. It is not necessary
to go far to find the reason. The classes are overcrowded and as a result it
is impossible for the present staff to give the students attention and instruction
individually
We notice that the present dissecting room appears to be
capable of accommodating some 16 to 20 students. In the anatomy class
there are 77 students
It would appear that students become qualified
without even an elementary knowledge of the simplest laboratory methods."
THE CIVIL VETERINARY DEPARTMENT.
Form of report.
3. The interest of the Chief Superintendent's report could be enhanced
by elimination of the comparison of annual figures, which
are not particularly abnormal, and by the devotion of great-
er space to such subjects as the actual success of the treatment of disease,
the investigation into the nature of diseases and the climatic or other conditions
predisposing to them, the accuracy of our statistics of disease, the attitude
of the people to the hospitals in different districts, the success of horse-
breeding operations as evidenced by the young stock produced, the problems
of cattle-breeding in different tracts, the trade in cattle and hides, and the
usefulness of fairs and of prizes at shows. All these subjects require more
detailed notice, for circumstances differ from district to district, and an analysis
of provincial figures gives no living picture of the lives of the beasts and
horses of the province and how they are benefited by the institutions and
human agents created and appointed for their welfare. Good individual work
should also be noticed in the report, for the hope of selection for mention in a
report which goes before the Lieutenant-Governor is always a strong incentive
to zeal. Neither the Chief Superintendent nor I can make anything of the
statistics in Statements VI, XIV and XIVA which have been incomprehen-
sible for years. I shall have correct statements prepared next year.
Disease.
4. It is good that the province has enjoyed unusual freedom from
foot-and-mouth disease, but a toll of 49,154 deaths from
rinderpest, which are largely preventible, is to be deplor-
ed. That 102,543 inoculations against this disease were carried out is satisfac-
tory, and the fact that only 300 deaths occurred among inoculated cattle should
induce still more cattle-owners to have their cattle inoculated, but separate
reports received from district officers show that inoculation is far from popular