Lower coast gazette., 1914-10-17
The Rice Field Buffaloes.

The Rice Field Buffaloes.
In this country we are SO used to calling the
American bison by the name-of buffalo thai we
are not generally aware of the fact that 1ae
bulk of the rice crop OF the world is produced
by buffaloes in the Far East which are ANIMALS
of a very different type from our American
buffalo. They don't look like our American
oxen, but some of them have been imported IN
to the United States at times, and it is thought
in the Far East that they could not get along
without these we'll known animals that are
habituated to life in the sYampy regions. It's
natural home is said to be in the grass jungles
and swa,nps of India and Assam. 1t is found
wild also in the Island Of Fornosa. A wild bull
stands 6 feet high at the shoulder and its bulk
is enormous and it's great spreading feet are
well adapted for walking in the sWamps, in fact
the animal seems to be semi aquatic. A herd
will lie for hours in a pool or river with just
their eyes, horns and great snub noses out OF
the water, This animal so described is the real
buffalo, called in India the Arpee, and should
not be COMPOUNDED with the wild oxen of tho
East Indian countries.
It is said that this wild and fierce animal has
been so completely domesticated for hundreds
of years by the Hindus and Cinnamon that tame
herds are regularly driven out TO feed in the
same jungles in which wild buffaloes live. The
bulls among them will come down and after
giving battle to the tame bulls will annex the
cows for a time and keep them in the jungle.
The salient difference in appearance between
the tame and wild buffalo is in the horns, which
in the tame buffalo do not grow to the size at
tanned in the wild ones. It is said that their
emper toward white people is very uncertain.
Notwithstanding this, in India they are gener-
ally taken out to pasture by some small boy who
is their tyrant and master and they will protect
him, their calves and themselves from the tiger.
The animal is reported to be valuable as a
dairy animal and the percentage Of butter in its
milk equals that of the best grade Of northern
dairy cattle. The result is that it has become
an equal %1avorite with the Hindu, the Arab and
the Chinaman and plays q most important part
in the agriculture of the lower Nile valley. 1t
is used now in Egypt, Palestine, Southern Italy
and on the Roman Campagna, as we'll as iii the
South and East Of Spain and also in Hungary,
Turkey and Western Asia as far as the borders
Of Afganistan. BY some unknown route it has
reached the west coast Of Africa and is estab-
lished as a boast Of draft and cultivation on the
Niger. 1t has travelled far up the Nile and will
go farther, for it would be invaluable in the
great Fashoda swan,ps. IN Southern Chine the
Chinaman has made it his own peculiar pet,
having, it is believed, first learned its value in
tho rice lands. 1t has been taken to Japan,
where it is used in the rice fields; to the Philip
pines and to the Hawaiian Islands, as well as to
the islands Of the halay Archipelago. A writer
Paradise Of the Pacific in Honolulu thinks that
possibly the Italians who are now so numerous
in the lower part of the Mississippi Valley may
introduce it into Louisiana, He says that ny
nature it IS the brown and yellow mans beast
and only appreciated in Europe by the races
along the Mediterranean. These animals were
| rot known in Italy in Roman times, but havs
been introduced since.