MILCH CATTLE AND CARABAOS. 31 



BREEDS OF MILCH CATTLE AND CARABAOS FOR THE 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



During a stay in Ceylon and a visit to Poona, India, my attention 

 was called to the question of the milk supply of these tropical regions. 



Notwithstanding the marked improvement in the methods of milk 

 sterilization, the continued use of canned milk and butter heroines 

 finally, to anyone living- in the Tropics, unpleasant, and the question 

 of securing fresh dairy products i-. a most important one for the com- 

 fort of European residents. 



The best breeds of milch cattle, like Jerseys, Guernseys, and Hol- 

 steins, when introduced into the Tropics very quickly degenerate. 

 They are not suited to its climate and can not be easily acclimatized. 

 They soon grow thin and sickly, cease giving large quantities of milk, 

 and die. 



In Ceylon several attempts to acclimatize them have been made, hut 

 with no success, and I am told that the dairymen who have made these 

 trials have been obliged to return to the use of the South Indian or 

 Madias breeds. Recently, however, the Sind cattle have come into 

 prominence as a milch breed, and the introduction of this breed into 

 other parts of India has been a great success. It is a remarkably vig- 

 orous race, and the cows are much better milk producers than the 

 South Indian or Madras breed. 



A visit made to the agricultural college in Colombo was very inter- 

 esting in this connection. In the college herd the three breeds were 

 represented. 



The bulls of the Sind variety are great, handsome fellows, with 

 immense humps on their shoulders, for they belong to the Bos indicus 

 species. They were dark chestnut in color, with black extremities, 

 and one could find nowhere healthier-lookino- animals than these Sind 

 specimens which were some time ago imported from Karachi. The 

 cows were sleek coated, with large udders and tine broad backs — pic- 

 tures of health. The Madras animals were of that long-legged, lean 

 type which is so common in the Oriental Tropics, and the cows had 

 small udders and peaked backs; while the Jersey bull which had been 

 brought down from one of the high altitude tea estates, for breeding- 

 purposes, was a sad enough sight, pale about the eyes and mouth, sway- 

 backed, and with hind legs all out of shape, though not nearly so ill- 

 conditioned as the pitiful looking, emaciated cows of the same breed, 

 which were seemingly in the very last stages of consumption. 



The object lesson could not have been more convincing nor the con- 

 trast between the perfect health of the Sind cattle and the mangy 

 appearance of the European race more striking. 



The statement by Mr. Drieberg, the director, that without the Sind 

 cattle it would be impossible to make up the Ceylon dairy was quite 



significant. 



