Cattle breeding is a science practise of old in India. 150 years back the East India Company was developing sturdy bulls for drawing their gun-carriages. Even now we find in certain Government farms the same old and obsolete policy in vogue. At about the same period Tipu Sultan had developed a fast running breed of bullocks which served him in the Army. Lord Wellesley, who had used these in his army, was so impressed by them that during his battle at Waterloo, he is said to have exclaimed at one time when his tired horses failed to reach the goal, “Alas ! had I those Mysore bullocks, they would not have failed me”.
All over India we find different breeds of cattle. Many of these have been intentionally and intelligently bred. Now we ought to know the direction in which we are to proceed. There are a few points which may be well kept in view when we want to breed our cattle. Firstly, each locality has got its individual requirements according to the type of work to be done and the climate and other conditions; over and above this, even in the same locality all people will not require the same type of bullocks. A farmer with a small holding, with work for lesser bullock power, would need a smaller bullock which he can maintain on the fodder produced in his small field; whereas a bigger farmer’s requirement will be different. Thus we shall have to provide in each locality various types of bullocks – small, medium and big – according to the needs of the agriculturists. A mere dual purpose cow will not do for all time. We should not sacrifice special qualities for greeting an average. Specialization in bullocks is a felt need. For this purpose we may not have at present a sufficient number of stud bull to develop different types of bullocks. If we go on as we do with scrub bulls out stock is bound to deteriorate. It may not be possible to wait till we get adequate numbers of good bulls. Under the circumstances we may have to resort, for the time being, to what is called artificial insemination. I hesitate to put these suggestions before you. But I have stated the problem for your consideration.

The cow touches all our economic activities. This had been recognised even in ancient times. That is why sentimental, religious and great importance had been attached to ‘the cow’ Why Gandhiji took to he cow was for reasons deeper than this-To him ‘cow’ symbolized all animal wealth. The service of the cow was to bring him nearer to his goal of truth and non-violence. All this programme sprung from this root.
Man has utilized resources of power other than manual labour for the production of his utility articles. Prior to the discovery of coal, man in the West used horse as the main motive power. Here in the East cow ruled – cow the mother of the bullock and its progeny – the bullock. We find that as the so-called industrial era dawned the economy of the West shifted from the horse to coal and thence to petroleum. This shift meant greater and greater violence. Thus a stress on cow means bringing back mankind to its former mooring.

When we use the cow and cattle wealth as helpers in our production there is a natural limit to the quantity of production in comparison to the state of affairs that ensues when coal or other such resources of power are utilized, on the expenditure of which there can be no natural limit. Thus the self-sufficiency or the measures of it which is attainable in a cow economy is distorted and disturbed when we depart from it. When the quantity of produce increases, markets are to be sought for it. Europe’s hunt for the markets in the last two centuries was motivated by this economic factor; thus as soon as man changed over from animal economy to power economy violence became necessary. They fought with each other for markets. The result was the first World War – when the countries depending upon the coal economy fought with each other for the market areas.

The race towards death did not stop here. It continued ahead. The resources of power given by nature are of two categories, one type is perennial in nature belonging to the vegetable and animal kingdoms. These may be called the ‘current resources’ and the other type is in short supply in nature like coal, iron, petrol and the like belonging to the mineral kingdom. These are not being manufactured under the bowels of the earth and their exhaustion means lessening in the total quantity available. These limited resources may be called the ‘reservoir’ type. It is when man depends more and more upon the latter type of resources that violence increases. Thus whereas from cow to the coal was one stop towards violence, coal to petrol was a leap further towards the abyss. The last conflagration got the whole world under its sway. The Second World War was a natural corollary when exploiting countries fought not only for their markets, but also to control the motive power-producing areas. These petrol pockets distributed over a dozen countries of the world, became the bone of contention over which the whole world fought. If we want to bring about a change towards peace we should depend more and more on the current type of resources for our motive power and ‘the cow’, which provides the bullocks belonging to that type, stands for it. Hence the cow becomes symbolic of an economy of Peace.
It is in this respect that I would like you to view the cow and all it stands for Go Seva is a movement for world peace. From the mad rush to exhaust the reservoir resources of nature we want to bring humanity to realize its folly and take the help of the perennial motive power available to man in the form of our friends, the cattle. We should have a whole picture of the kind of world we want. Go Seva should help us to bring it about. I wish and hope that you will have this all round attitude and try to bring it into practice. You would do nothing which goes against ‘the cow’. The mills and all the economy which depends upon ‘reservoir economy’ are an enemy of the cow economy and Go Sevaks will realize that Gandhiji’s cow embraces all his constructive programmes.

The Cow Conference, held at Amritsar, in 1946 laid great stress on the place the cow holds in our rural economy. Apart from the programme for the preservation of the cow, as an animal, we have also to consider the steps to be taken to build up the economy symbolised by the cow. We cannot take up isolated items and concentrate on those without consolidating village life on all fronts.
From this broader approach any encouragement given to the cultivation of long staple cotton for mills is tantamount to the destruction of the cow as the seeds of long staple cotton are not available as cattle feed because of the fuzzy short staple cotton being left unlinted on the seed. Owing to this the bullocks are deprived of their oil & protein diet. Our villages are dependent on animals for the satisfactory working of their economy.
The opening of vanaspati ‘Ghee’ mills again cuts across this economy. It deprives people of a wholesome article of diet-vegetable oil and replaces it by indigestible hydrogenated oils and sets up unfair competition with the ‘tellis’.
The building of expensive roads, surfaced with Asphalt, cement etc., while being wholly unnecessary for the village economy, takes away from the cultivator the part-time occupation of transport, and reduces the employment of the bullocks. Such roads encourage draining the villages of their products. They are harmful to the unshod-animals and dislocate the self-sufficient village economy.
It is not necessary to multiply instances. The cow symbolises a way of economic life just as much as the internal combustion engine and the lorry typifies another way of economic life. The choice is before us. We may choose the one or the other but we cannot make a hotchpotch of it. If we decide in favour of the cow we have to take up that economy in all its aspects.
It is imperative that the Provincial Governments, that are now seriously thinking of rural development, should clear the issue and declare for a definite line of action. No haphazard attack on this problem will solve it.

There is a good deal of talk today about protecting the cow from the slaughter-house. It is good that people are becoming conscious of the great evil that indiscriminate slaughter of cattle has brought to our country. On the purely shortsighted view, the need for milk in a vegetarian country being important, it gives a premier place to the cow as a feeder of the nation. Apart from that it also provides the bullock which is the motive power with which the farmer produces from the land. The importance of this aspect of the question has been fully realised in conferring divinity on the cow and raising cow-slaughter to the level of a religious question. However, because of fanaticism, the very same zeal on the one side has created cussedness on the other side and we often find conflict between different sections of the population centered around cow slaughter. Therefore it now becomes necessary to ascertain exactly the place of the cow in India and give it a national approach.
With an artisan the tool that he uses becomes almost an object of worship. In fact, in India we have a definite festival ‘Shastra Pooja’ devoted to this ceremony. Man recognises his economic dependence on the means of production. Just as an artisan depends on his tools, similarly the farmer depends on the cow and if we extend the economic sphere, we may say the cow, being the means of producing food, becomes the centre of the economic organisation of man, especially in an agricultural country like India.
Apart from this aspect, when we look upon the cow as the producer of the bullock, the importance of the cow is enhanced. She now represents the centre of our economy. We may call our economic organisation, where the cow contributed towards motive power, transport, food production, etc, as a ‘Cow-centred economy’ in the same manner as England and other European countries were, not long ago, horse centred economies.
During the last century England drifted from being a horse-centred economy into a coal-centred economy and from being a coal-centred economy she is fast moving into an oil-centred economy. These stages are very important to notice as the fate of the world itself depends on the source from which we obtain our power.
In the cow and the horse-centered economies we have unlimited sources as we could breed as many bullocks and horses as we needed and, therefore, there being no restriction on the amount available, it does not arouse anybody’s greed or jealousy; but coal and petrol being limited in their supply and quantity, uses of such sources of power lead to friction amongst nations as the source dries up. It is now well recognised that these global wars are in no small measure due to different nations seeking to get control over oil fields. Hence the coal and oil economies lead to conflict amongst nations. Unlike these two, the cow and horse economies are, comparatively, peaceful economies. Therefore, in a wider sense we may say that when we break through a cow-centered economy we are really causing cow slaughter, i.e. in other words when our actions are inimical to the existence of the cow-centered economy, we are not in the company of the protectors of the cow. For example, when we use coal and oil as our source of motive power we are really banning the cow from our economy. When we are making asphalted roads, which are not in the interests of animal traction, we are also guilty of breaking through the cow-centered organisation. This aspect of the question is much more vital to us than the mere slaughter of the four-legged and two-horned animal.
We wonder how many of our friends who stand up against cow slaughter can show their hands clean of bovine blood from this higher interpretation of cow protection. The ‘Cow’ like Khadi, is symbolic of a way of life. ‘Cow Slaughter,’ therefore, would signify making impossible that way of life. We hope that those who stand for cow protection will realise the extensiveness of the cause which they stand for, and will whole-heartedly support this wider application of the principle.

For about a week I have been here at Pannai Ashram. Ever since I arrived here I have been distressed to hear the buzz of the tractor. I understand that some landlords of Sindi, who own lands at Seldoh, have hired Government tractors to plough their lands. I fear these friends have not considered the consequences of their acts. I have previously pointed out the damage caused by big industries and centralisation. I shall now speak about the tractor in particular.
I hear this tractor is one of 50 horse-power i.e. it is equivalent to 50 pairs of bullocks and the charges are Rs. 60/- per day. This means that every day it works, it takes away about one khandy of jawar and leaves behind smoke. We are already poor, how can we afford to pay such charges ? On the other hand, if we used bullocks we would get rich manure with the urine and dung of these animals. This method would involve keeping cows also to breed bullocks. The cow will yield milk which is a very wholesome form of food. This is our economy. By breaking into it we impoverish ourselves.
Besides, as the tractors plough more deeply than the bullocks, unless we have more manure and more water we cannot benefit from them.
These machines such as plough, hoes and harvesters. Mostly these come from the U.S.A. to which place we have to export our raw materials in payment. Export of raw material causes unemployment in our own land. If we send out groundnuts the teli loses his work and the Ghani Industry dies. Thus using tractors involves not only unemployment of bullocks but also causes unemployment of our fellowmen. We cannot slaughter these useless animals and men. Hence, they become a drain on the country.
The money spent on the tractor is not of use all the year round. It serves only during seasons of ploughing, harvesting etc. while bullocks can be used always for drawing water, transport of goods, people etc. Thus it leads to a huge amount of capital being locked up.
When war or other disturbance occurs we cannot get diesel oil, which comes from foreign lands, as this oil will be used mainly as fuel for war machines. At such a time we cannot plough our fields as the bullocks being of no use will have become extinct by then.
Don’t be carried away by the fact that part of the charges are paid by the Government. The Government itself has no money of its own, but what it gets from taxing the people. So part of the charges paid by the Government only means that the country bears the burden as a whole. So we are not receiving the service any cheaper, and we, who do not use the tractor, are also made to pay for the services rendered to the rich farmers who are the ones who use the tractions. Thus the burden falls on the poor people, also. If you do not approve of paying for rich people, you should actively oppose the Government using public money for supporting tractor cultivation.
There are many more evils which I have not the time to elaborate, but I have said enough to indicate the dangers underlying the seemingly innocent ‘Help’ rendered by tractor cultivation. So villagers should be warned against such dangers being imposed on them unawares, and work towards making themselves self-sufficient.

(By Om Prakash Sharma M.Sc.)
and the tractor and it has been found that the time honored implement-the country plough-is still a good tillage implement and in many cases superior to the tractor.
Sri A.R.Khan, the Agronomy Specialist of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, conducted experiments from 1942 to 1947 with the object of studying the effect of seed-bed preparation with alternative forms of tillage implements on the yield of wheat, by the treatment and comparison of bullock and tractor cultivation on an irrigated piece of land at Karnal sub-station of the Institute.
One of the above plots was ploughed seven inches deep by the tractor implement i.e. by the soil inverting plough followed by the cultivator and the harrow. Another similar plot was ploughed to a depth of four to five inches with the bullock plough called ‘Victory’ and supplemented with the local country plough. The above experiments were continued for a period of six years with these implements. It was found that with the tractor implements i.e. with plough, cultivator and disc, the average yield of wheat throughout this period was 10.98 maunds per acre, while with the ‘Victory’ cum country plough the corresponding average yield was 12.65 maunds per acre. In these experiments the manuring and other cultural treatments were the same for all the plots. This experiment clearly brought out that the deep ploughing of the tractor is harmful for wheat cultivation. The tractor cultivation tends to pulverise the soil too much. This encourages its packing after irrigation or a shower of rains. The air moisture relationship is thus disturbed with the result that the crop suffers.
These findings have been confirmed by numerous research investigators. Keen and his co-workers at Rothemstead have demonstrated that there was no advantage in ploughing deeper than four inches. Stameric reported in the ‘Dominion Expert Station Progress Report’ on the basis of over 14 year of trials, that deep ploughing was not necessary. Messrs Low and Nizamuddin in ‘Agricultural Journal of India’, and then Mr. Allen, in his ‘Remarks on Primary Cultivation Under Indian Conditions’, have shown the superiority of soil inversion by bullock ploughs in trials conducted over many years.
After establishing the superiority of bullock-drawn implements over the tractor ones under normal cultivation practice, Sri A.O.Khan along with Sri B.P.Mathur carried on some investigations with the object of obtaining experimental evidence on the moot question of the depth of cultivating as to whether there is any difference in the yields when tillage is carried out of the same depths with the bullock ploughs and the tractor discs. These experiments were conducted at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi for a period of two years (1950 and 1951).
Similar plots were taken. One of the plots was ploughed 9-10 inches deep with tractor soil inversion plough in the first instance and followed by normal cultivation with tractor implements to achieve a suitable seed bed for two crops, (1) Maize in kharif and (2) Wheat in Rabi. The Second plot was ploughed five inches deep with soil inverting plough drawn by bullocks followed by normal cultivation with the local country plough.
A third plot was ploughed upto 4-5 inches deep with the local country plough without inversion throughout the season and the fourth plot was ploughed by tractor discs to depth of about four inches. It was found that the deep ploughing with tractor gave an average yield of 37.44 maunds per acre of wheat while the shallow ploughing with tractor gave an average yield of 37.16 mds. per acre of wheat. The highest yield was 40.23 mds. per acre when only the country plough was used. The use of bullock soil inverting plough followed by local country. plough gave a yield of 39.97 mds. per acre. All the four plots were treated in the same way as regards manures and other things. Thus we note that the deep as well as shallow ploughing with tractor gives comparatively low yields while the highest yield is given by the country plough.
With the recent advances in soil science it is becoming increasingly clear that good physical condition of the soil is as important, if not more so, in regard to its chemical constitution. The structural pattern of the seed bed or tilth was the best under shallow cultivation with country plough in the above experiments. This rendered an easy flow of nutrition to the plants and that is the reason of higher yield of wheat obtained under this treatment. Shallow cultivation with tractor disc, however, did not produce the same effect due to great pulverisation of soil, making it fluffy and single grained, which is not conductive to good yields.
The inferences from the above experiments to be drawn are that the time-honoured implement-country plough-is still the best for ploughing. Mechanised cultivation with tractor permits speed in work and enable a larger area to be cropped in absence of man power, but does not ensure any bigger yield. Read More….