Chapter XLIV. 



BRAHMIN (ZEBU) CATTLE. 



Referring to the name by which these cattle are known in America, 

 it may be well to state that it has no authentic foundation other than 

 the prevalent but mistaken idea that but one breed of cattle is 

 found in India, and that one connected in some mysterious way with the 

 Brahmin religion. There are, in fact, several breeds of cattle in India, 

 each one transmitting its peculiar qualities with as much certainty 

 as do any of the modern breeds so well known in America. 

 True, all of these families possess many characteristics in common, but 

 they differ sharply in those distinctive qualities by which American 

 breeders must judge of their value. 



Mr. Albert Montgomery, of New Orleans, has kindly placed at 

 hand a number of private letters from reliable parties in various por- 

 tions of India, written in response to queries prior to his importation of 

 Brahmins in 1885. According to the unanimous testimony of these 

 men well qualified to judge the family best calculated to find favor 

 in America is, in India, known as the "Buchour," and it is from cattle 

 of this family that most of the shipments to America have been made. 

 The name "Brahmin," however, is so firmly fixed among those who 

 have bred or known them in the Southern States, that it would be im- 

 practicable, at least, to attempt a change. We have therefore adopted 

 the nomenclature which heads this chapter, and shall refer solely to the 

 cattle as now known in the United States. 



The Brahmins as noted above form one of the common domestic 

 breeds of Indian cattle, are found also in China and East Africa, and are 

 the only breed which can endure the intense heat and insect pests of the 

 countries named. They differ from our domestic cattle in the following 

 particulars : The period of gestation is about 300 days, while the aver- 

 age period with the common cow is 283 days ; they have a hump of fat 

 over the shoulders, and 18 caudal vertebrae as against 21 in our ordinary 

 cattle. These characteristics have led naturalists to class them as a 

 distinct species (Bos Indicus}, but the bulls breed as freely with all 

 varieties of the common cow {Bos taurus) as with females of their own 

 peculiar breed. 



Introduction to the United States dates from the year 1849, when 

 Dr. James Bolton Davis, of Charleston, S. C., secured from the Earl of 

 Derby and imported the first pair of Brahmins ever brought to the 



