102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



leather, were considered such miserable outcasts, that they 

 were forbidden to eat or sit with other persons, or to enter 

 their houses. They were not enumerated in the census, and 

 enjoyed no legal rights ; while the land on which their vil- 

 lages stood was never measured, nor mentioned in documents 

 relating to the public roads. What must have been the 

 astonishment of the great embassy from Japan in 1872, to 

 learn that the President of the United States had once been 

 a tanner ! Cattle were formerly raised chiefly for transport- 

 ing heavy materials either upon pack-saddles or upon carts ; 

 and for this purpose a cow was worth from twenty to thirty 

 dollars, and a laroe bull weighing from twelve hundred to 

 sixteen hundred pounds would sell for from thirty to fifty 

 dollars, according to localitv. Such animals are also some- 

 times employed, by farmers who can afford it, in ploughing 

 the wet soil of the larger rice-fields. The plough is very 

 primitive in its form, and has an iron point about eight 

 inches long by six inches wide in its broadest part, and re- 

 sembles the shovel or ball-nosed plough of our Southern 

 States. Drawn by a solitary bullock, and skilfully managed 

 by its single handle, such an implement turns a very good 

 furrow in soft mud, and covers sufficiently well the green 

 crop which is buried as a fertilizer. Japanese cattle are 

 peculiar in form, resembling somewhat the American bison. 

 The back is thin and relatively high just behind the shoul- 

 ders, and the hind-quarters are rather light. The horns are 

 of moderate size, and in some cows quite small and delicate. 

 The tail and bones are fine, and the legs often rather long ; 

 while the udder is very small. The prevailing color is a 

 dark ash-color with black head and points, though in the 

 north of Hondo there are many animals marked with white, 

 and occasionally one of a yellomsh-red, and very rarely a 

 brindle. In the south the size and color are more uniform, 

 and the resemblance to the buffalo quite striking. The 

 grade animals resulting from the cross of the native cows 

 with Short-horn and Devon bulls are generally handsome, 

 and show decided improvement in form, weight, and rapidity 

 of growth, though valuable milking qualities have not yet 

 been developed. The milk of the native cows is very rich 

 in butter, and resembles that of the Jerseys ; but the quan- 

 tity is small. 



