660 OATTLE AND DAIET FARMING. 



MALAYSIA. 



THE WATER BUFEALO OF SIAM AND MALAYSIA. 



SEPOBT BY OONBOL BTUDEB. OF SINGAPORE. 



I have to acknowledge the receipt of a Department circalar of date 

 July 18 last, addressed to the consular ofQcers of the United States. 



I have carefully and repeatedly read and reflected upon the forms and 

 memoranda just alluded to, and, while fully impressed with the great 

 importance to the agricultural interests of the United States of the 

 subject contemplated in the said circular, I can truly say, as a native- 

 born Swiss and as an American citizen who has resided for a number 

 of years in the State of Iowa, engaged in farming, owning and breeding 

 stock, that any information I can give about the territory and prov- 

 inces lying within the limits of my consular jurisdiction and adjacent 

 countries or islands can be of no practical benefit whatever to the stock- 

 breeders of the United States, whatever interest it may have otherwise 

 as a contribution toward a full understanding of the whole question of 

 cattle-raising; and were I ever so willing to obtain and give the infor- 

 mation required in any way in accordance with the said forms and mem- 

 oranda, I feel fully certain that no ont here, with any degree of satis- 

 faction to myself and to the Department, could give it to me. 



The colony of the Straits Settlements and intervening Malay prov- 

 inces under British protection (the territory within my consular juris- 

 diction) is not a cattle-breeding country, notwithstanding that districts 

 therein are devoted, more or less, to agriculture ; and very nearly all 

 the cattle used in the same for beef and for draft purposes, the passen- 

 ger trafiflc excepted, are imported from Siam and some of the suzerain 

 Malayan provinces nearest to Siam proper; from Burmah and Bengal, 

 but mostly from the Coromandel coast; and they are peculiar breeds 

 of cattle not met with anywhere in Europe or America, and seemingly 

 specially adapted to the tropics. They are lop-eared and hunchbacked, 

 with a very thin covering of hair. 



There are several varieties as to size, color, form, horns, and strength. 

 The best as to weight and strength and power of endurance under a 

 tropical sun come from the Madras coast chiefly, and occasionally from 

 Bengal (the largest size), and Siam. 



The cattle of the countries alluded to, I feel certain, could not endure 

 the climate of the United States, except perhaps the extreme southern 

 parts of Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. And as the cattle of our South- 

 ern States are much larger, finer, and inured to the climate, and giving 

 far better returns in beef and dairy products (quantity and quaSty), 1 

 fail to see what any one would gain by importing stock for breeding or 

 race-mixing purposes from India. 



There are a few Hindoos engaged in the dairy business, keeping small 

 herds of cows. They raise calves, keep the heifers, sell the steers to 

 cartmen, while the old worthless cows are disposed of for beef. The 

 owners of worn-out cattle, after allowing them a few weeks' rest on coarse 

 tough grass (called ballang), sell the same also for beef, so called. 



