India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace].

  • Robert Wallace
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    or a mango twig is supposed by the natives to have a powerful influence in retarding acid fermentation. I he native habit of squatting on the heels—or in Scotch, sitting on their “hunkers”—docs away with the necessity of using a stool in milking. See Plate XVI. (/;). Before the man begins, the calf, which is usually reared or kept alive in a state of semi-starvation on a very small proportion of the moderate yield of its mother, is first allowed perhaps one-sixth portion ; it is then tied to the foreleg of the cow, and no doubt with its struggling to get free, in obedience to the strong instinct to suck which has merely been excited without being fully gratified, it encourages the natural flow of milk from the udder, by inducing in the mother that tranquillity and that sense of satisfaction which is common to all the animal kingdom when in the sole possession and full enjoyment of family relationship of an agreeable kind. It is generally believed that a typical Indian cow will not give milk unless her calf is present, or a dummy calf is substituted. This is more or less a fact, but results entirely from the system of manage- ment and training. The circumstances are similar in the case of British cows if kept in the semi-natural state in which Indian cattle are reared in villages. If the calf were removed without permitting the cow to smell or lick it, as she naturally docs, and if it were hand-fed from the pail, the milk would in a few days after parturition flow as freely to the action of the milker’s hand as from an English cow. It might in some cases take two or three generations to pervert to the full extent the instinct governing this matter. The rule is not without its exceptions, as Plate XVI. (b) represents a cow being milked after the death of her calf without any attempt to deceive her. Her attention was occupied, according to a very general practice, by some food given at the beginning of the operation, and her hind legs were tied to prevent kicking. Milk enters largely into the diet of well-to-do-natives in