438 



increasing European population steadily refuses to buy the milk from the 

 native cowkeepers, who by the way are chiefly Indians, and resorts to 

 the bottled or tinned brands so plentifully imported. The want of a good 

 healthy and pure milk is sorely felt and the risk run in using the local 

 article is so great that anything in the way of improving the qualities 

 of the native cow will be warmly welcomed. 



The introduction of the English Shorthorn from Australia has 

 been adopted by a number of people in the Federated Malay States 

 with such good results as to warrant further experiments with this 

 excellent breed. Being of a light build and not inclined to beefiness 

 the Shorthorn seems to be well adapted to stand a tropical climate and 

 up to the present time there have been surprisingly few failures. I have 

 not heard of any other breed having been introduced but it is quite 

 reasonable to expect that such breeds as the Guernsey and Jersey 

 would stand our climate as well as the Shorthorn does. 



I would not advocate the introduction of herds of English cattle 

 to supplant the Indian breed, this would undoubtedly be a failure ; but 

 I certainly do advocate their introduction as a means of improving the 

 native or Indian cow by interbreeding. I have seen several cross bred 

 heifers of this nature from Shorthorn dams sired by Indian Bulls and 

 in each case the Shorthorn blood has predominated. At the Perak 

 Government Dairy Farm at Maxwells Hill, Taipeng a herd at present 

 numbering young and old about a dozen, is kept. The Bull is a pure 

 bred pedigree Shorthorn of fine type and the cows are all well bred 

 animals with good milking qualities. There it is intended to gradually 

 weed out the Indian cows and have a dairy entirely composed to 

 English cattle. 



There should be no difficulty in doing this as the cattle thrive at 

 that elevation (3,500 ft.) much better than on the plains. The native 

 cows in the herd are being sired by the Shorthorn Bull and great things 

 are expected in the future. It is hoped that the young progeny from 

 this Bull will gradually spread over the Peninsula as I have no doubt they 

 will. Several private individuals are doing good work on similar lines 

 but in a smaller way and at present I see no reason to doubt that in 

 time an entirely new race of dairy cow will spring up far superior to 

 the native beast in milk and beef producing qualities. 



That an improved milk supply is urgently needed, especially in 

 large towns like Singapore, Penang, Kuala Lumpor and Ipoh goes 

 without saying and outbreaks of disease such as typhoid fever 

 amongst Europeans are surprisingly rare, when we look at the filthy 

 samples of fresh milk offered for sale in these places. The absence of 

 disease is probably due to the fact that most people dread the local 

 article and used tinned or bottled milk which is at least sanitary. 



Milk although one of the most valuable forms of natural food is at 

 the same time one of the best agents for conveying and spreading disease 

 germs. 



If therefore there be any infection present at the source of supply 

 it can be taken as a certainty that the milk will quickly convey the 

 germs to every point where it is distributed. When we look at the 

 filthy state of native cattle sheds and the manner in which the natives 

 live crowded together in the same sheds with the cattle we see at once 



