Notes on Stable Management in India and the Colonies

straw as forage for the well and plough bullocks in the spring, when they are working hard. Arrangements can generally be made with the cultivator to purchase so much from him by weight, thrashed and delivered at your own stable, or else to purchase so many acres of the standing crop as it is growing; but the former plan is the most satisfactory, as it is astonishing the heavy crop that will be produced; and, on the contrary, you will be equally astonished to find with the other plan how light it is. The negotiations for the supply of oats should be entered into in good time in the spring--say about the beginning of March--as it is astonishing how slow such matters progress in the East, and they had better be left in the hands of your head syce. No doubt you will be cheated out of a small amount, but you must make up your mind for this before arriving in the East; but you will have the satisfaction of knowing that if you tried to carry on negotiations yourself you would be cheated out of more. I have tried b