The Opelousas courier., 1903-04-11
FACTS ABOUT CARABAOS.
THE ANIMALS UPON WHICH THE
FlLlPINOs DEPEND.

Ninety Per Cent. of the Water Buff
faIoes Used by the Filipinos in
Their Agriculture Operations,
Have Perished.
The message of the President to Con-
gress, calling attention to the serious
calamity that has befallen the Fill
pinos and asking for an appropriation
to meet the emergency, was Of special
value as showing cause of the distress
prevailing in the Philippines.
It has been known fer some time
that the rice crop, the food staple of
the islands, was largely a failure but
the letter of Secretary Root on which
the Presidents message is based; gives
the first definite information as to the
cause of the calamity. Secretary Root
says in his letter that 80 per cen OF
the carabaos (water buffaloes), the
draught animals Of the Islands upon
which the natives depend for the Guilt
walton of their rice fields, have been
destroyed by rinderpest, with the re-
suit that the rice crop is 4 failure. This
calamity has been followed by an cpl
demic of cholera and the distress has
becomes very acute.
A gentleman who is acquainted with
the Philippine Islands told a Sun re-
porter yesterday that he believed the
mortality among the water bufaloes
was probably exaggerated. Still the
destruction of these useful animals
had undoubtedly been great, and some
years might elapse before he islands
would recover from the blow.
If we were overtaken by a misfor-
tune causing the loss of nearly all our
farm animals we might realize what
the crisis actually is in the great rice
growing districts Of the Philippines.
The water buffalo is the only ex-
ample of the tanning for domestic pur-
poses of any of the group of wild BUT
faloes that are found in India, China,
and Africa. The domesticated animal
is believed to have originated in India,
but it has spread widely over the
Orient and has even been introduced
into Europe.
It's wild relatives are now most
prominent in Africa. These various
families of buffaloes are not related to
our so-called buffalo, more properly
designated as the bison.
Nobody knows when or how the
wild buffalo was tanned and became
one of the most useful of brute SER
wants, These animals are mentioned
in ancient literature, but not as do
m~esticated.
The first European to write of them
described them as animals OF very
J curious appearance which he saw in
723 A. D. in the valley IF the Jordan.
A traveller in the Euphrates Valley In
> 1864 was the first to report thei ar
: rival in the swamp regions there. They
: were owned by the Arabs, and the
, writer said that the men n animals
. led almost an aquatic life.
They were introduced into Egypt
-. long ago and play a great role in the
. agriculture of that country. Their I'M
: portance there has greatly increased
since the early part of the last cen
fury. when nearly all the cattle Of
Egypt were killed by rinderpest
D Strange to say, the buffaloes of thai
CAV were said to Withstand the plague
though now their relatives have sue
0 cumbed in the Philippines.
In the middle ages they were valued
! as farm animals in what is now Bull
0 garia and in the lowlands OF the
Danube. and many of them are today
In the service Of the Crimean farmers
The only European land N which the!
are now of much importance Is in tn
: southern part of Italy, where they ar
helpful in til!ing the rice fields II
q swampy regions.
The Orient is the great field OF use
fitness for this animal. The buffa4'
has spread all over India and the In
dian archipelago and is found in grea
numbers in south China and Japan.
1t It is called the water buffalo be
cause it is fond of lying for hours Il
s- water or mud partly for the cooling II
It fuence of the bath and partly becaus
: it thus escapes the insect pests Whlc
annoy it. Its greatest utility is /
y hauling the implement, between
plow and a rake, with which tn
q muddy ricefelds are cultivated. Hui
: dreds of thousands of them have thu
). been employed in the fields OF tn
: Philippines.
When DR.. Hahn wrote his grea
d work on domestic animals seven year
: ago he expressed the opinion that tn
:" water buffalo was worthy of ia
b wider distribution than it had yet a
tanned. He said there We're larg
r regions along the Amazon and in tn
q. Guianas, Ecuador and Colombia,
- well as in the lowlands of Mexico
where the water buffalo could b
made far more useful than oxen
horses: and he predicted that the tim
was approaching when this Valuabl
animal would be introduced w1del
both in the hot parts of America al
in the tropical regions of Africa.-Ne
York Sun.
Soap and Civilization in Guam.
rho ;phobi}onfs of Guam are heir