Agriculture -- Egypt; Egypt -- Description and travel
Most estates have to purchase their oxen, as very few cows are kept for
breeding purposes. The fellaheen keep one or two, and rear the young
bulls. Where the soil is richest the cattle are best. In summer the
fellah allows his young stock to get into poor condition, and this has
an effect on their growth. He has--amongst many other things--still to
learn about early maturity. Within recent years work-bullocks have
risen enormously in price, owing to more butcher's meat being consumed
by the fellaheen and the European visitors. The price of a pair of good
bullocks is 45 pounds at the age of four years. These cattle resemble
those of the Channel Islands, but are larger. They are very often
deficient in depth of rib and chest measurement, hollow-backed, and
narrow across the loins, as well as leggy, and they show want of
strength of forearm. These are some of the defects which may be
eradicated by care in selecting, mating, etc.
Cows are kept and bred from by the fellaheen, who rear the young bulls,
while, as we have seen, the cows are used for ploughing. They are not a
breed of deep milkers, but the milk is rich in butter fat, 5 per cent,
being common; and sixteen pounds of milk will give two pounds of cream,
or one pound of butter, which is in demand at from 1 shilling 6 pence to
2 shillings per pound.
Crossing with European bulls has been tried lately, with a measure of
success. Some idea of the characters of these animals may be gathered
by comparing the illustrations representing both buffalo and ordinary
bull with the experimental cross-bred animals reared upon the Khedivial
farms. It has been found that crosses between Fribourg bulls (Swiss)
and native cows improve the milking qualities and also produce an animal
with better points of breeding, without diminishing the usefulness for
draught purposes. Fine specimens are to be seen at the present time
upon the Khedive's farms. A practice common to the country is that when
the cow is milked her calf is tied up beside her and allowed afterwards
to partake of its share. If this rule be not observed, the cow will not
give up her milk.
*Buffaloes*.--Large specimens of these peculiar and useful animals have
been bred upon the Khedive's stock farm, great enterprise having been
exercised for the purposes of improvement both as draught animals and
for dairy purposes. One of the sires is a magnificent bull lately
brought by his Highness's orders from the Soudan. Both bulls and cows
are yoked for farm labour in the fields, while the latter, as dairy
stock, are in great favour, their milk being richer in butter-producing
qualities than that of the ordinary dairy cow of Europe. Eleven pounds
of buffalo milk will churn one pound of butter, but the quality is not
so good, being pale in colour, and oily. The yield of milk per
twenty-four hours is about thirty pounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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