70 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist." [July 1, 1893 
are very docile, and tlieir milk is not easily 
affected by irregularity. 
If well cared for, the heifers mature earlier 
than with mos't Indian breeds, and com<^ into 
profit sooner. The cows give an equal yiehl 
of milk to that of large breeds, on much le>s 
food. They come in " .season " 6 weeks to '2 
months after calving, and, if permitted, will 
milk up to the day they calve again. Our best 
Aden cow gives after calving 2-2 lb. milk per 
day, and never gives less than 10 lb. Our next 
best milker is a five-year daughter of this cow by 
a Gir bull. The (iir cows are not so satisfactory 
as the Adens, and my conviction is that they 
do not, under the best management, maintain 
in the Deccan the same milking (pialities they 
possess when grazed on the Gir Hills. ' 
The Adens are small in size and most of all 
the Indian breeds resemble our own nati\e 
animals. The Girs are handsome .creatures and 
are characterised by large pendent ears and broad 
X^rominent forehead, and they are of a mild 
disposition. 
Buffaloes are in great favour on the Bombay 
side as milk and especially butter producers, and 
much surprise was expressed by those engaged 
in dairy at my statement that there is a in- 
surmountable prejudice in Ceylon against buffalo 
milk and butter. In the Bombay Presidency nearly 
all the butter is made from buffalo milk, the 
produce being slightly dyed with anatto to 
give it the colour of real cow's butter. This 
is no .sophistication, for the consumers are 
perfectly well aware that they are being supplied 
with buffalo butter. Colouring with a standard 
contract of anatto dye is of course quite common 
in English daries. The Surat buffalo is according 
to Mr. Mollison, unsurpassed as a butter producer, 
and in the hot weather when 1 was there gave 
1 lb. of butter from 10 lb. of milk, and the 
best milker produced 36 lb. of milk. With the 
price of buffalo butter at 12 annas or 7o cents 
per lb., a good Surat buffalo thus gave by 
sale of its produce nearly E3 per day. In 
Poona buffalo milk is sold at 1(3 lb. for the 
rup.ee, while 13 lb. of cows milk are got for 
the same money. 
Of concentrated food about 4 lbs. of cotton 
seed is allowed per cow, and Mr. Mollison 
characterises this as one of the best and cheapest 
foods. Gingelly cake, however, he considers the 
best of all, but as it was found rather expensive 
to purchase, carthamus tinctorius, kusumbi 
(safftower) cake, bought at 101 lb. per rupee, 
was substituted. This latter has the advantage 
of keeping for mouths without moulding, though 
cattle have to get accustomed to it before they 
will eat it readily. Bran and chuni (or dhal'l 
husk) are the other foods depended on. When 
I was at Poona brewer's grain from the Deccan 
brewery was being utilized. Here is a sample 
of the diet of a dairy cow: 4 lb. bran, 4 lb. 
malt, 3 lb. oil cake and 3 lb. cotton seed, but 
the quantities of different foods Tar\^ according 
to the size milk yield of the animals. The 
cows were as a rule let out for a couple of 
hours in the cool part of the morning for a 
little exercise in the field. 
It will be observed that the produce of the 
milk is reckoned in pounds. The term seer 
commonly heard in India is (like " mauud ") of 
variable significance, and theiefon- milk is 
weighed by me.ans of the dairy lierd recorder 
which shows the milk in lbs. a* well as imijttnn] 
pints. The rule at Pooua is to weigh each 
cow's milking and afterwards weigli ihe total 
produce again. A quart of milk weighs on an 
average '2\ lb. In the dairy 1 found a "baby" 
and "victoria" separator, a victoria churn as 
well as a refrigerator, and an alderney butter 
worker. I spent some time looking at the various 
]jroce.sses in the manipulation of milk, and 
Mr. Mollison was most solicitioiis to place 
me in possession of all the information that 
I desired to have. He advised the use of 
four-wheeled spring carts for carrying the milk 
any distance, and to cover the vessels, into 
which the milk is put after being j)assed through 
the refrigerator, with canvas jackets that had 
been dipjjed in water, so that the process of 
evaporation that would go on while the milk 
was in transit might help to keep it cool. 
GENERAL ITEMS. 
Professor Walley, in his work " A Practical 
Guide to Meat Insjieclion," thus refers to foot 
and mouth disease: — "That it is due to a micro- 
organism is proved by its nature and its course, 
and by its clinical and pathological characters: 
but this micro-organism has not yet been satis- 
f ictorily demonstrated, thougli Klein has described 
a micrococcus in the fluid taken from vesicular 
lesions. That the virus pervades the whole 
system is shown by the fact that the character- 
istic lesions develope more or less over the 
cutaneous surface, and in the mucous membrane 
of the alimentary canal, on that of the sheath, 
the vagina, the udder, and, occasionally the 
bronchial tubes. The virulence of the disease 
varies materially in different epizootics in different 
animals, and in diflei'ent seasons; thus, in some 
out-breaks, a large percentage of animals die 
either from the effects of the fever or from 
the effects of the local lesions. In the vast 
proportion of cases the fever which accompanies 
its evolution is of so benign a character as to 
interfere but very slightly with the iiutrition 
of the blood or of the flesh. But every now 
and again — especially when the sufferers are 
exposed to such adverse influences as cold or 
wet, to exhaustion, or to bad sanitary conditions 
— it assumes malignant characters, and its lesions 
partake of the nature of those produced by 
septic infection ; there is induced, in fact, a 
veritable septicajmia." 
Mr. E. Atherton writes of "Arrowroot" and 
Tapioca: — Both these products have been largely 
grown in this district, particularly the latter, as the 
Manioc is grown in nearly every garden and chena 
in the Province, and the industry began last year 
to be extended to Jaffna and Trincomalee, in 
which places it was not formerly grown, regular 
cargoes of bundles of sticks (or slips) being 
purchased by the traders and carried away. 
Of late years though Arrowroot is found growing 
here and there in small clumps or patche, the 
growth of it in any great proportion has visibly 
declined. Enough Arrowroot has been made 
from the produce of one gardeu in town to last 
