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OBSERVATIONS ON THE MILK OF COWS IN 



JAMAICA. 



By H. H. Cousins, Island Chemist. 



Visitors and newcomers to this island are invariably struck 

 with the comparative scarcity of fresh milk and butter, despite 

 the large herds of cattle and the fine grazing lands to be seen all 

 over the island. It is only natural that it should be considered a 

 reflection upon our agricultural enterprise that some £6o,ooo worth 

 of milk and butter should be imported annually from other coun- 

 tries although this must pay a duty of £ 10,000 before it is ad- 

 mitted into competition with the local article. 



If this £70,000 could be spent in the island it would obviously 

 be of great benefit and the sympathies of all intelligent Jamaicans 

 must be drawn to those who are seeking to develop the dairy in- 

 dustry in the colony. 



It is apparent that our cattle have been bred and handled for 

 generations exclusively as a beef breed. Our penkeepers can at 

 any rate say that they produce better beef than any tropical 

 country in the world, and at a price which makes beef cheaper in 

 Jamaica even than in free trade England. Beef and milk are not 

 essentially incompatible, as witness the Dairy Shorthorn, but there 

 is no doubt that in a country where cattle have to exist entirely 

 upon grass, and this free from leguminous constituents, the milk- 

 ing of cows for dairy purposes would involve an injury to the 

 calves, and thereby frustrate the quick production of saleable cattle. 



It must be recognized that the raising of cattle under the condi- 

 tions obtaining upon the average pen in Jamaica is that of pro- 

 ducing flesh upon a working minimum of flesh-producing mate- 

 rial. In other words, the law of food supply in the tropics holds 

 with fodders as with human foodstuffs, viz. : the prolific production 

 of carbohydrates is associated with a deficiency of albuminoids. 



The tremendous energy of the tropical sun enables plants to 

 produce big yields of sugars and starch ; but this is, as a rule, not 

 associated with a corresponding development of flesh-producing 

 albuminoids. 



The tropics can always outdo the temperate regions in the pro- 

 duction of carbohydrates Acre for acre, the Sugar cane. Sweet 

 potato and Cassava in the tropics are twice as productive of sugar 

 and starch as their temperate competitors, Sugar-beet, Irish Potato 

 and Maize. 



Until a perennial leguminous forage crop can be found that 

 will give yields to compare with that of Lucerne in temperate and 

 sub-tropical countries, Jamaica could never develop a dairy indus- 

 try — upon pastoral lines — that could compete with the foreigner. 



Under present conditions, cows must be fed with imported 

 meals and feeding stuff's, if any large yield of milk is to be ob- 

 tained, and this greatly adds to the cost of production. I foresee 

 that the development of the cotton and cassava industries will 

 have a great influence upon the dairying interest, since the refuse 



