CHAPTER XVII. 



CATTLE AND FODDER. 



A HERD of some sort is amongst essential 

 requisites on every estate. Good, strong buffaloes 

 are one of the most valuable forms of " power" 

 at command, and if not quite so cheap and 

 effective as water, are always to hand, which is 

 more than can be said of the other motive power. 



For turning pulping machinery, and all the 

 varied work of the curing sheds, for stamping 

 clay for bricks, for drawing water, for dragging 

 light carts over estate roads, or fetching stores 

 and materials from the head of the ghaut, the 

 common Indian beast of burden is unrivalled. 



But cattle have another almost more important 

 class of duty, and this is manufacturing manure 

 for the clearings cattle shed litter, when properly 

 saved and judiciously applied, being as good a 

 manure under the Equator for all kinds of plant 

 life as it is recognised to be in Europe. It is a 

 pity, then, that these invaluable auxiliaries of the 

 planter are not more carefully bred and looked 

 after than is usually the case. In Travancore 

 at least the cattle on the estates seemed to me of 

 poor breeds. The monsoon is too severe for them 



