658 CATTLE AND DAIRY FAKM1NG. 



There are crosses between The English and some Indian breeds to be 

 seen, which to my mind, especially on account of their superior stamina 

 to withstand the varieties and peculiarities of the climate, are of greater 

 local utility than their originals. Plato ]So. 5 represents poorly a good 

 specimen of them, viz, a draft bullock well known here, possessing all 

 of the best points in some measure of both varieties in his parentage 

 and having their marked characteristics amalgamated and toned down 

 in a highly useful and interesting manner, viz: the Xellores long and 

 somewhat stilty limbs me shortened in the cross-bred and their propor- 

 tions altered, so that the animal, though standing on shorter legs, has 

 long and muscular thighs with short cannons, ami the. body, somewhat 

 lengthened and broadened, covers more ground, which points, together 

 with the retention of the massy fore quarters of the XelJore, renders its 

 mixed offspring more efficient for heavy draft and capable of faster loco- 

 motion. 



The photograph does the animal injustice with respect to these points, 

 owing to the picture having been taken in a circumscribed space on a 

 rainy day, and there, was no opportunity of getting a better one. 

 Occasionally one meets with a nice animal of this sort which it gener- 

 ally transpires on inquiry is prized by the owner above any other of 

 his stock. The color is sometimes a light striped brindlc, but generally 

 a rich iron gray. 



BUFFALOS. 



The common Bullalos also inhabit Ceylon and are found both wild in 

 the interior and partially tame in the Singhalese villages wl^ere they are 

 kept and used to trample the paddy (rice) lands after plowing and to 

 be sometimes milked, though not often, as they aie lierce and trouble- 

 some, and their yield of milk smsll and of poor quality. Their llesh is 

 almost inedible. 



It is diile-rcnt, however, with their congeners from Southern Jndia, 

 which are larger and tamer, and often imported for dairy use in eon- 

 Milcrable numbers, for they are fairly tractable and give a good supply 

 of wholesome milk, and being kept in the neighborhood of large towns 

 and allowed to feed upon the commons, they present an interesting sight 

 to strangers who arc astonished at their almost hairless uncouth forms, 

 the very exemplification of ugliness; and the wonder is still further in- 

 creased, when the awkward beasts, to avoid the midday heat, wade de- 

 liberately into the neighboring ponds, submerging their bodies, until 

 only their noses, raised almost perpendicular, protrude, above the water, 

 presenting the appearance of a. shoal of alligators. 



No successful attempt at crossing these animals with true cattle has, 

 I believe, been made; the mixed progeny, whenever any appeared, 

 having invaiiably died young. 



SUMMARY. 



It will be, seen from what is hereinbefore written, that a species of 

 dwarl't'd cattle, too insignificant in every respect for Western purposes, 

 though well suited to the small wants of a simple people, is the only 

 permanently successful and largely useful breed in the island; and this, 

 by SOUK- natural interposition, is suited to live in a climate, graduating 

 through all degrees of temperature, from extreme- torrid in the low 

 cMintiy, to mild frigid on the hills, and to subsist upon such poor vege- 

 tation as grows in the meanest soils of almost every description known 



