September i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
217 
CATTLE 4ND CATTLE DISEASE IN CEYLON 
Our oorre^ondent “ Truth ” having, apparently, 
retired from the discussion which ha initialed, 
another writer comes forward with suggestions, 
some ai least of which would be useful, if the com- 
bing apathy and stolid prejudice of the people would 
permit of their being earned out in practice. With 
the precautions and action now proposed it may be 
well to compare the recommendations which were 
the result oi the extended enquiry and the volumi- 
nous report and evidence of the Commission of 
1869. The summary was as follows : — 
1. All cattle arriving from India at any port in 
Ceylon to be subject to a quarantine of fourteen days, 
which may include the period occupied by the voyage. 
If during that time disease breaks out, the animals 
should be treated as in any infected district. If no 
sickness appears, license to travel may be issued to 
the owners- 
2. No cattle to be allowed to graze on the Crown 
pastures about the old Irrigation Works, without 
license from the Government Agent of the District, 
3. No bull more than a year old to be allowed to 
graze on any public pasture grounds. 
4. Castration of cattle to be allowed by European 
mode alone. 
5. Owners of cattle to report any suspected oases 
of sickness. HeaUmen to inspect the herd, and if 
murrain exists to separate the sick animals, and 
report to the Government Agent of the district. 
6. Locality to be declared infected and placed in 
quarantine, and other cattle not allowed to pass 
through the same. 
7. Restriction to be removed only by order of 
Government Agent or other superior authority. 
8. Hospitals and medicines to be provided for sick 
cattle, and Keepers appointed. 
9. Owners of sick cattle to pay for their keep 
and treatment. ■ - j 
lU. Taveiams to be subjected to inspection, and 
restriction when deemed advisable. 
11. Regulations to be made by the several Govern- 
ment Agents suitable for each Province, and 
proclaimed in the usual manner. 
Of all the above reoommendaiions, we believe the 
only one which was carried out was the provision 
by Government of male animals of a superior breed 
for the use of cattle owners ; but the result was 
BO discouraging that even this effort at improvement 
was, alter a time abandoned. The quarantining 
of cattle imported from India seems never to have 
been seriously entertained by Sir Hercules RoDin- 
Bou’s government. At this we cannot be surprised j 
for although the Commissioners leant to the opinion 
that murrain was often introduced into Ceylon from 
India, they yet felt compelled to admit that 
Murrain as it exists in Oeylou is not the mere 
temporary outbreak of an epizootic, as has been the 
case during the late cattle plague in most parts of 
Europe, but that it has existed lu, we may say (for 
all pcaolioal purposes) on indigenous state for years. 
This consideration and others equally cogent pre- 
vented the recommendation of specially stringent 
measures. The summing up oi the treatment 
recommended to prevent the outbreak of disease 
and us spread when it had appeared was 
ThorougU cleanliness, both of the cattle sneds and 
personally among the attendants. Removal of all 
filth whioU IS continually accumulating, and the sprink- 
ling tbe ooutaminated pans of ibe floor with lime 
or wood ashes, or both. The free and frequent use of 
carbolic acid, for the purpose of destroying all germs 
of ooutagiou which are tloating in the air or contained 
in the excretions. Or, in the absence or scarcity of 
carbolic acid, the substitution for it of sulphur vapour 
and tar. The prevention of all communication with 
unhealthy cattle. The consumption by fire of all rub- 
bish, whether beddiug or dung, as often as possible. 
Ail excellent measures if only the natives, amongst 
whom igQoraaoe is the parent of so much cruelty, 
28 
could be induced to carry them out. — In looking 
over soma Administration Reports for 1870, the 
year after the report of the Cattle Commission 
had appeared, we hnd opiuions quoted in one of 
them, which we expressed in 1869 and whioh, at 
an interval of twenty-one years, we can but repeat. 
Mr. L. Liesohing was in 1870 Assistant Govern- 
ment Agent of Nuwarakalawiya, a district which, 
with accretions, was formed by Sir Wm. Gregory 
into the North- Central Province. Mr. Liesching 
wrote and quoted thus : — 
Cattle disease has been the subject of much discussion 
and correspondence during the year. It is one on which 
it is easy to be eloquent ; but it is exceedingly difficult 
to devise any suitable means of checking the evil, and 
the most plausible theories are easily demolished by 
those who know the practical difficulties in the way. It 
is therefore a subject for sincere thankfulness that 
Government has strenuously refused to pass any Ordi- 
nance that would be inoperative because it could not be 
carried into effect. Much that has been said and written 
on the subject relates to black cattle ; but what is to 
be done with those incorrigible vagrants and determined 
fence-breakers, the buffaloes ? How are they to be 
kept from forcing their great bodies through any impe- 
diments, and making their way through thorny jungles 
to their favouritie haunts and mucb-Ioved marshes ? 
In this District all agricultural operations are carried 
on by means of buffaloes, black cattle ate only bred — 
or, to speak more correctly, are allowed to breed — for 
sale. It has often struck me on seeing the large herds 
of these latter running about the villages, oi no use for 
agricultural purposes, and perpetually trespassing on the 
cultivated lauds, whether they really are not on the 
whole a greater nuisance than au advantage — whether, 
taking into account all the damage one of them does 
from his infancy until he has arrived at bull’s estate, 
he has not cost more than he will ever realize. I should 
not however have ventured to give utterance to an idea 
so heterodox, but for the following passage which I met 
with recently, quoted from an Indian Journal : — 
“ We cannot help thinking that Indian villagers are 
under some kind of delusion that cattle are in themselves 
wealth, without reference to their use. At this season 
of the year, when the most familiar sight is a herd of 
cattle browsing on the grass and under every group of 
trees, each accompanied by the never-failing companion, 
the assiduous bird. Pastor, a passer-by cannot fail to be 
astonished at the number of unserviceable animals he 
sees grazing around him : — under-sized oxen, that are of 
no sort of use for the plough ; old cows that are a mere 
framework of bones, gmliiess of milk, and long past 
toil; and numbers of unwieldy buffaloes which are 
stupid and slow for draught, and whose cows yield a 
very inferior article for the dairy. Then, too, it must be 
remembered, that a dead ox is of no value to tbe ordi- 
nary peasant. He cannot eat him, be will not skin him, 
he knows not that hoofs make glue, and horns combs ; 
and his only wish is to throw the carcase somewhere 
where the chumars or the pariah dogs may easily get 
bold of it. Altogether, it seems to us that there is a 
large element of the national ehifclessness in cattle- 
keeping, and that many of the small farmers would only 
be aule to assign custom or village reputation as a 
reason for the retention of so many animals they do not 
want, and which are neither ornamental nor useful.” 
On this the Editor of the Ceylon Observer bays — 
“ There is immense cruelly in the mseusate ignorance 
of attempting to rear cattle without the means of pro- 
perly feetliug them. In such cases the wretched 
animals, with vitality at its lowest ebb, drag on a weary 
existence, to yield it up at tbe first attack of inclement 
weather or disease. * ' » * 
“ To convince the ordinary jungle natives that they 
are morally responsible lor the proper feeding and 
sheltering of the animals they attempt to rear, will be 
a work of time, but the work can be expedited inde- 
finitely by the aotiou of really oonsoientious servants 
of Government in the higher positions, who can ex- 
ercise not only ‘moral suasion,’ but a good degree of 
benevolent despotism. That tbe natives can be kind 
to their animals, on the piinoiple whioh aotuates slave- 
