Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
treatment  and  housing  of  cattles.  No  one  was 
more  ardent  than  he  in  ferretting  out  diseased 
stock  and  tracing  sources  of  infection  where 
such  existed,  and  stating  the  results  of  his 
enquiries  in  full  reports.  Now  if  his  successor — 
if  there  be  one — has  as  much  experience  as  the  late 
Mr.  Dassanayake  Mndaliyar,  and  if  he  he  instructed 
to  furnish  all  reports  concerning  cattle,  direct 
to  the  Veterinary  Surgeon  and  not  through  half 
a dozen  officials  (owing  to  which  procedure  the 
cattle,  like  the  poor  old  King  of  Spain,  are  left  in  a 
dying  condition,  because  the  doctor  cannot  be 
summoned  before  the  usual  formalities  are 
gone  through),  we  might  see  some  good  results 
follow.  Even  in  the  case  of  an  outbreak  of  cattle 
disease  in  the  provinces  we  believe  that  the 
Veterinary  Surgeon  is  summoned  after  much 
delay  caused  by  official  formality,  and  often 
after  the  outbreak  has  spent  its  force  and 
worked  its  havoc.  But  to  return  to  the  subject 
of  the  inspection  of  cattle  (especially  dairy  stock) 
in  Colombo ; we  would  strongly  urge  that  this 
part  of  the  Sanitary  Officer’s  duties  should  be 
delegated  to  the  Veterinary  Surgeon  with  whom 
Municipal  inspectors  and  policemen,  both  of 
whom  have  special  facilities  for  detecting  con- 
cealed cases  of  disease,  should  be  directed  to  com- 
municate. Moreover,  if  the  Veterinary  Surgeon 
could  also  find  time  to  periodically  inspect 
the  cattle  and  carcases  at  the  slaughterhouses, 
the  result  would  be  a direct  advantage  to  the 
public,  and  the  slaughterhouse-keepers  will 
before  long  be  adepts  in  the  art  of  inspecting 
cattle  intended  for  the  slaughter,  and  meat  for 
food.  These  are  matters  that  should  have  had 
attention  before  the  arrival  of  the  Veterinary 
Surgeon,  but  it  is  not  too  late  to  make  the  in- 
novation even  now. 
Much  has  been  said  about  the  advertisement 
that  appeared  in  the  local  papers  announcing  that 
the  Veterinary  Surgeon  was  prepared  to  treat  sick 
cattle  at  the  School  of  Agriculture.  While  there  is 
no  denying  that  the  wording  of  the  notice  was  not 
sufficiently  explicit  and  not  such  as  would  have 
been  adopted  by  one  who  knew  the  people  of 
the  country,  it  was  of  course  perfectly  evident 
that  only  cattle  suffering  from  ailments  other 
than  contagious  and  infectious  diseases  were  called 
for.  So  far,  however,  from  cattle  affected  with 
the  latter  description  of  disease  being  (as  we 
feared  might  be  the  case,  through  misunderstand- 
ing) brought  to  the  school,  no  cattle  owners 
with  sick  animals  have  yet  come  in  answer  to  the 
invitation. 
GENERAL  ITEMS. 
In  a contribution  to  our  columns  some  months 
ago,  “ W.  A.  I).  S.  ” brought  to  our  notice  the  fact 
that  while  buffalo  milk  was  held  in  high  esteem 
in  Bombay,  it  was  looked  down  upon  in  Ceylon. 
Why  this  prejudice  against  buffalo  milk  should 
be  so  strong  in  Ceylon  it  is  difficult  to  say  ; the 
antipathy  is  founded  on  no  good  grounds,  and 
is  probably  hereditary,  for  buffalo  milk  by 
no  means  merits  the  gastronomic  ostracism  that 
has  been  meted  out  to  it  by  Colombo  house- 
holders. True,  it  contains  a larger  precentage  of 
fat  than  cows  milk  does,  and  hence  is  less 
digestive  than  the  latter,  but  being  as  it  is  of  high 
89 
nutritive  quality,  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should 
be  objected  to  as  an  ingredient  of  an  adult’s  diet. 
As  may  be  expected  buffalo  milk  is  well  adapted 
for  butter-making  purposes,  and  an  English  dairy 
expert  travelling  in  India,  lately  gave  it  as  his 
opinion  that  there  is  no  superior  animal  to  the 
buffalo  as  a butter-producer  not  excepting  the 
best  dairy  breeds  in  England;  Not  very  many 
years  ago  buffalo  butter  was  extensively  used  in 
Ceylon,  but  even  the  butter  of  the  buffalo  is  now 
coming  to  be  tabooed.  It  may  have  a flavour 
peculiar  to  itself,  but  considering  that  it  costs 
under  R1  a pound,  it  certainly  deserves  to  1* 
used  more  generally.  How  few  people  care  to  think 
what  fat  they  are  eating — certainly  not  the  fat  of 
milk — in  the  highly  anatto-coloured  prepa- 
rations that  they  buy  in  tins  ? 
Our  last  number  contained  a further  contribution 
from  our  correspondest  “ B.”  on  the  subject  of  a 
substitute  for  cattle-manure.  As  for  the  gas  liquor 
from  our  gas  works,  it  is,  we  believe,  allowed  to  run 
to  waste  for  want  of  local  enterprise  among 
landowners  in  the  suburbs  of  Colombo.  The 
manufacture  of  the  valuable  sulphate  of 
ammonia  would  seem  to  be  impracticable  from 
the  fact  that  Sulphuric  acid  cannot  be  had  at  a 
price  low  enough  to  warrant  its  use  in  the 
process,  and  that  sulphates  are  rare  minerals  in 
the  Island.  We  do  not  believe  that  any  Thomas- 
slag,  sold  in  England  for  £2  or  £2  os.  a ton  has 
yet  reached  Ceylon.  The  suggestion  we  threw 
out  that  coconut  fibre  dust  might  be  dessicated 
to  drive  off  excess  of  moisture  was  made  with 
the  idea  that  a short  heating  in  a roughly-con- 
structed stove  might  be  found  a cheaper  means 
than  the  employment  of  machinery  for  exerting 
pressure.  It  does  not  appear  likely  that  slight 
pressure  by  means  of  the  apparatus  described 
“ B.”  will  drive  out  any  appreciable  amount  of 
moisture,  but  the  experiment  is  worth  trying. 
The  action  of  coir  dust  will  certainly  be  advan- 
tageous on  both  sandy  and  stiff  soils,  as  giving 
body  to  the  former  and  improving  the  texture  of 
the  latter.  We  thank  our  correspondent  for  the 
compliment  he  pays  us  when  suggesting  that  we, 
ourselves,  should  undertake  the  experiment  to 
test  the  comparative  merits  of  cattle-manure 
and  coir  dust- guano  compost.  If  we  had  the 
facilities  and  the  encouragement  for  so  doing, 
we  would  before  now  have  tried  many  ex- 
periments in  addition  to  the  one  suggested. 
Our  sphere  of  usefulness  has  been  limited  for 
us,  at  least  so  far  as  agricultural  work  is 
concerned.  We  shall,  however,  remember  the 
hint  thrown  out  and  make  an  effort  to  carry  it 
out  whenever  opportunity  offers. 
We  are  in  receipt  of  a copy  of  the  2nd  edition 
of  Professor  Walley’s  “ Practical  Guide  to  Meat- 
Inspection.’'  The  volume  is  handsomely  got  up 
and  contains  42  illustrations  which  greatly 
enhance  the  value  of  the  book.  We  hope  to 
refer  to  the  work  at  greater  length  in  a future 
issue. 
The  Agricultural  information  leaflet  published 
in  Sinhalese,  and  issued  from  the  School  of 
Agriculture  is  now  edited  by  Mr.  J.  Rodrigo,  2nd 
Assistant  at  the  School.  The  publication  is 
highly  appreciated,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  fact; 
