Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-05-30
FARMS OF INDIA.
The Hindoo Cattle are all of the
Same Variety.
No Fences to the Farms
The Wheat. Growing Area.

stock farmers, says Frank Carpenter In |
the american Agriculturist. The
Hindoo peasants will have nothing to
do with pigs or fowls. The only ami
mails they keep are horses and cows,
and the cattle all over India are OF the |
sacred COW variety. These are mag
aificent animals, of a dove or light yel-
low color, possessing the aristocratic
air of the we'll bred Jersey and the big
frame of the Holsteins and Shorthorns.
They have great humps upon their
shoulders, which rise fully six inches
above the rest of the back, and which,
strange to say, look By no means out of
place. The Hindoos worship these
COWS, and I visited at Benares noted
temple in which hundred sacred bulls
were prayed to every day. 1t was in
the center of the city, and it looked
more like a stable than temple.
Imagine stone court about the size of
a barn-yard, with an immense low
band-stand in the center. Around
tho court let their be row of stalls
in which "a hundred of these
sacred bulls, with these big humps on
their backs and with silky ears hanging
down like those of q rabbit, stand with
their heads toward the court. About
the court other bulls are moving, and
the sloppy, dirty stone floor is filled
with men and women having the dark,
handsome features of the Hindoos.
They hold up their hands before the
bulls and pray. Pretty girls feed them
garlands of bright flowers, and at the
edge of the court an old priest sits and
puts red mark on the forehead of each
worshipper as he goes out. Now and
then the bulls roar and stamp their
feet, but as rule they are as gentle
fat as butter. The Hindoos bring
water from the Ganges and offer it to
them, and they would much sooner eat
their grandfathers than chew beef
steak.
Their scruples, however, do not pre-
vent their using these cattle as beasts
of burden, and, from Singapore to
Bombay, saw carts drawn by these
beautiful shoulder bumped animals,
and in many of the fields l saw men
plowing with them. The only other
beast in common use in India is the
water-buffalo, which is as homely as
the sacred COW is beautiful. 1t seems
to be kind of cross between the pig
and the hippopotamus, and it has wide,
fiat, curved horns, a neck which comes
straight out from the shoulders, and u
body which is bloated and i'll shapen.
It's skin is covered with thin struggling
black hair, which looks more like the
bristles of hog than the hair of a COW
1t delights in wallowing in the dirt
and it is the most plebeian species o
the genus bos. The sacred cows ar
MIXED, and the butter made from theI
is clarified and used by the Hindoos fo
cooking A Hindoo will never us
lard or tallow in any shape, and th
Scpoy mutiny was caused by the stor
being circulated that the cartridge
which the native soldiers had to bit,
were creased.
One of the curious sights of India
the farmers pleasure-buggy. 1t is
sulky-like affair, made of bamboo fisf
inp-rods and is covered with red cloth
1t is drawn by one of those sacre
bulls, some bre eds of which are famot
for their trotting qualities and whic
can almost make as good timo as Il
average horse. The driver sits on Il
shafts in front, and there is just enous
room under the cover at the back f
one or two people to sit cross-legget
When farmer wishes to travel fro
from one part Of the country to anoth
he gets into one of these carts, and
he is wealthy man, he will have
richly -colored blanket to put over
bullock. took ride upon one
them and found it as easy as any sui
have ever tried in America.
There are no fences about the far
of India. Wooden fences would be
impossibility, even if they were neede
The white ants are the great pest
the country, aud these will eat up an
thing wooden. Iudi. has a vast n
work of telegraph lines covering
whole Peninsula, ard tho poles
these are made of galvanized ire
The ties of the railroads have to
made of iron, and such few fences {
COW oIono the railroad, were made