(3)
years, as they are still in their infancy. The demand was chiefly for bulls of a
milch strain, and as an experimental measure I obtained the permission of the
Inspector-General, Indian Civil Veterinary Department, to advise a limited
number of local bodies to secure a few of the Montgomery breed (as there are
no milch cattle in the ordinary acceptation of the term in this Province).
Very unfortunately out of a small batch of 8 which I got down from the
Amritsar Fair, Punjab, only a couple of them will serve. Two of them have
been kept at Belgachia, and all attempts to induce them to bull have proved
futile. Whether this is due to climatic or other influences I am not in a
position to say, although I think it is not improbable that they were sent for
sale to Amritsar by people who were fully aware that they were useless as stud
animals. Under the circumstances and as the cost of bringing them down is
more or less prohibitive, it would be inadvisable to continue the experiment
until we are able to secure bulls which are known to be actually good servers.
I fancy the only way this could be satisfactorily done would be to go to the
villages where they are bred and buy direct from the cattle owners. Whilst
on the subjects of bulls, I deem it advisable to publish that there are other
factors of equal, if not of more importance to be considered, when trying to
improve the cattle of the Province. I have now seen a great many of this class
of stock in Bengal, and to my mind endeavours to get owners to pay more
attention to their cows and heifers is about the most primary matter to be
thought out, although I fear it would be a most difficult one to carry into
effect. There are numbers of Brahmini bulls in the Province, the offsprings of
which are to be seen everywhere. And, although the Brahmini bulls may be
far from perfect, there are many amongst them active and strong, and in most
ways suitable to produce the agricultural bullock the rayat requires. In fairs
it is common to find their stock amongst the dozens of good plough and fair
numbers of excellent cart bullocks. If old, malformed and otherwise un-
desirable cattle could be prevented from being used to breed from, if cows and
heifers had the same attention paid to them which is paid to the male stock,
and if there were greater facilities for grazing, we would soon have a less
demand for bulls. Without any intention of making disparaging remarks, I
wish to observe that District Boards and others seem to consider that, as soon as
they have succeeded in securing and placing a good bull in a neighbourhood or
area, that they have immediately conferred a great boon to the cattle owners
of that area. No doubt this is perfectly true; but if any really good results
are to be expected from him (the bull), the cows and stock should be placed
under the conditions I have just mentioned. The bull is far too frequently
held responsible for the too numerous needy and bad stock seen about the
country, whereas he oftener is the last animal to blame.
10. (ii). Bull rearing and breeding Farms and Depôts.—The proposal to
establish bull rearing dep6ts in this Province is to be dropped at present by
order of the Government of India. Pusa and Sripur are still the only two
breeding farms in Bengal.
11. Pusa Farm.—On my representation that the grazing area on this farm
is quite insufficient for a large herd of 200 cows, it was decided at the Pusa
Conference, in January last, to limit the number to 50. Of these, 20 were on
the books at the end of 1904-05 and 13 were purchased during the year
under report.
12. In order to try and find cows for the farm, I toured under canvas in
the districts of Shahabad, Saran and Ballia for a month with my two Inspectors
(each of us taking a different course). I regret to say I was unsuccessful. I
could not hit upon any decent cows at all which were actually local bred; some
fairly good ones which were brought to me were either imported or crosses;
the actual locally bred cows were very undersized all through. The thirteen
purchased during the year were got at Sonepore Fair, and though a poor stamp
and very expensive, they represented the class of cows which I consider are
actually typical and local bred. They possessed points as near as I could get
to the few of those already at Pusa which had been selected by the Inspector-
General, Indian Civil Veterinary Department, as the type desirable to work
with, but these particular animals I do not reckon as true local cows. The
Montgomery cattle were entirely under the control and management of the
Director of the Agriculture Research Institute, Pusa.