Page:Gódávari.djvu/36

14 called the northern (uttarádi) buffalo is used. It generally has white patches on the forehead and just above the hoofs. There are three kinds of sheep; namely, the country sheep, which give milk, manure and meat, but bear no wool; the kulam sheep, which are valued for their wool but are rare; and the síma (foreign) sheep, which have long tails, give no wool, and seem only to occur in Tuni.

Of goats the 'large' or 'country' kind and the 'small' or Kánchi breed are distinguished. The latter are also called the 'Calcutta' breed. They yield richer and more wholesome milk and are more prolific than the former. Some care is taken about the breeding of both sheep and goats. Most of the males are sold for meat, and only one or two superior animals are kept for breeding purposes. Two local practices are of considerable importance to the improvement of the cattle. In almost every village a really good bull or two is set free to roam among the herds, and in the Agency the owners of cattle often set apart a superior animal, called the vittanam (seed) bull, to be used exclusively for crossing purposes. In many parts of the district, also, people castrate the inferior bulls.

Cattle are usually fed on paddy straw in the plains and cholam straw in the Agency. In the central delta and in Rajahmundry taluk they are also given sunn hemp (janumu), which is much grown there. In Amalápuram, where grazing is especially scarce, they are fed on rice husk, horse-gram and gingelly oil-cake. When the crops are on the ground and there is no particular work for the cattle, i.e., from August to December, they are sent from the plains to graze in the forests in the Yellavaram and Chódavaram hills. The Pithápuram ryots drive theirs to Tuni. The Amalápuram and Nagaram ryots do not as a rule send their animals away owing to the trouble of getting them across the rivers. The Bhadráchalam ryots drive theirs in the hot weather to Bastar and the Jeypore zamindari, where the grazing is better. The Pólavaram forests are resorted to by the cattle of the Kistna district. Cattle mortality is said to be heavy in the delta (especially in the central delta and Rámachandrapuram), where fodder is scarce, the animals are crowded and the ground is saturated with moisture. 'They suffer from the absence of grazing and deficient food at one time and from feeding on rank, quickly-grown herbage at others.'*