2
Among bovines rinderpest and hemorrhagic septicæmia were responsi-
ble for 25,750 deaths as compared with 9,429 in the previous year. All that was
possible with the shortage of staff was done to check these epidemics and the
number of animals inoculated against both diseases was substantially larger
than in 1915-16.
5. Mirza Shuja Beg's generosity in presenting and partly equipping a
veterinary hospital at Patti has been suitably recognized by Government. The
Lieutenant-Governor has noticed with pleasure the other instances of similar
public spirit on the part of individuals mentioned in paragraph 21 of the Chief
Superintendent's report. The utility and popularity of veterinary hospitals
throughout the province are illustrated by the steady rise in the number of
patients treated at them. In the year under report the figure was 334,577
which the Lieutenant-Governor believes is more than double that of any other
province in India.
6. In cattle breeding the work of the Civil Veterinary Department
has been eminently successful. The number of Hissar bulls supplied to Dis-
trict Boards continues to increase year by year : there are now nearly 1,000
distributed over the province, and there can be no doubt that as the result of
the department's teaching the Punjabi zamindar now thoroughly appreciates
the advantages of breeding from a good sire and that the standard of plough
and well cattle is steadily rising. When the treatment of young stock and the
suitable feeding of cattle when in work is more generally understood a further
improvement may be expected.
7. The year was on the whole a prosperous one for the Hissar farm
and Mr. Branford is to be congratulated on his successful management. The
receipts rose from Rs. 1,01,000 to Rs. 1,25,000, while the expenditure fell
from Rs. 1,85,000 to Rs. 1,55,000 mainly in consequence of improved fodder
conditions. The Lieutenant-Governor would be glad if in future reports the
Director of Agriculture would briefly sum up the financial working of the farm.
Though hæmorrhagic septicæmia accounted for 18 deaths among the stock,
casualties on the whole amounted to only 372 as compared with 439 in the
previous year. Stall feeding of the cattle had to be resorted to in the opening
months of the year, but the excellent monsoon rains relieved the situation
and by the end of the year a reserve stock of 70,000 maunds of fodder had
been collected. This result is highly satisfactory, and His Honour hopes
that it may eventually be possible to build up a reserve which will not only
meet all the requirements of the farm but provide a surplus for distribution
in the surrounding tracts in times of scarcity.
An interesting experiment in the breeding of Arab stallions has been
started on the farm, which, if successful, should make the province self-support-
ing as regards the provision of Arab stallions for local bodies.
8. Colonel Farmer, whose enthusiasm and success in extending the
practical operations of the department have been recognised by the grant of
the Order of Companion of the Indian Empire, and the other officers of the
department deserve the highest praise for the manner in which they have
discharged their duties in a particularly trying year. In addition to their
own work they materially assisted the Army Remount Department particularly
in connection with the dourine outbreak.
22 DA-352—12-9-17--SGPP Lahore.