Abstract

India has the reputation of maintaining the largest number of cattle in the world, though in respect of the number of cattle per head of population she lags behind new countries like the United States, Canada and the Argentine, and old ones which have specia- lised in animal husbandry, like Denmark and Holland. In cattle, as in other things, India's superiority seems to iie in quantity and not in quality. The singing of the glories of a few fine breeds like the Amrit Mahal, Kankrej, Gir, Sindhi, Ongole and Kanga- yam-to maintain or improve whose quality as draught or milking animals little organised effort had been put forth until recently- cannot cover the sins of multitudes of miserable mongrels seen all over the country. Our average bullock is a poor draught animal, an impediment to the introduction of improved implements. Our average cow is a very poor milker, giving, according to an autho- ritative estimate made a few years ago in our Presidency, a net return of 4 pies per day.

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