How bill the bull can be helped

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: How bill the bull can be helped
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 6 (Issue No.6) June 1926
Year: 1926
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Fulltext: 6 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL June, 1926 How Bill the Bull Can Be Helped ** ** ** ** ** Cattle Standardization Board Proposed Since the day when Homo clubbed the first Bovo to death and called in the tribe to partici pate in a feast of juicy beef, Bill the Bull has been con tributing energy for the human being to consume in his march to the goal of comfort, happiness and good health. No other animal can transform humanly useless vegetation into humanly useful food faster than Bill the Bull, so since the day the human animal tasted the first beef steak, man and Bill have marched side by side, ever climbing toward better things. Bill has been the greatest contributor to the position man occupies in the animal kingdom today. The ergs of human effort Bill has supplied through his calories are uncountable and the ergs of his own labor applied to the soil so that other necessary calories could be obtained by man are also uncountable. So Bill has a place in the life of a people second to no other animal —he is easily first. Here in the Philippines Bill’s capacity to help is but slightly recognized, yet he is the greatest single need in the country; without him as a food supply, without him as a common laborer in the fields, progress, development, civilization in a higher form than is now present in the country is im possible. Bill, and his owners who like him, must be helped. Those interested in his welfare both as a force in the community for good and the profits he will return to the owner, and to the state in general benefits to the entire community, should constitute a group to improve him in form, type and efficiency. Nature you know does not evolve better types of work and beef ani mals. Conditions and requirements of cul tivation and development of lands are entirely artificial, not natural, and to think that primeval Bill can take his place in this artificial situation, without assis tance, is a wrong thought; he cannot, he must be helped to meet the situation. Nature simply provides that the fittest physically to the conditions surrounding the animal shall survive, and here in the Philippines it is a wonder that Bill is still with us at all. Outside the restrictions nature puts on development, government steps in and puts on further restrictions and creates conditions under which nature is assisted in destroying. So if Bill is to be changed in type so that he can better meet the artificial con ditions imposed upon him, and be increased in numbers so that he can take a larger position in the development of this coun try, nature must be controlled in breeding, and government must liberate the business of his growing from the restrictions it imposes. Almost every man of a progressive turn of mind is interested in Bill, and govern ment should give this interest the right of way and allow it to be directly repre sented in the transformation of the useless grass lands of the country into better types of animals so that they can synchronize with the heavier work now needed to de velop the country. If such was done the country would soon start into an era of development not exceeded by any area of land between Cancer and Capricorn. On this page there is the picture of a steer grown in the Philippines, %ths Ongole and %ths native blood. He was four years old when slaughtered, and he produced 247 ‘/a kilos of dressed beef which was sold for 68 centavos per kilo; the hide and other offal bringing in P28 additional, making a total gross receipt for the animal of P19G.30. . It was a crime to slaughter him for beef in Manila, for he had at least five years of useful work in him and then his beef would be worth about what it was when killed. He is a distinct loss to the country, as his five years of work Onqole-nalive Four tjear Old Steer, dressed wlqhl 247} kilos: ilha Onqole-lndian, }lha native would have contributed considerable to the development of the country. He was slaughtered because conditions of trans portation and lack of interest on the part of those who should have bought him for work in the sugar fields of Negros, made it impossible to put him where he should have gone. He was but one of a lot of 21 head shipped to Manila and sold, as he had reached his maturity and it was no longer profitable to waste good grass on him. This steer was raised by the writer on the Masbate ranges and he is the product of an effort to better the type of cattle there. In 1912 I allowed the itch I had to do something for Bill to be represented by the purchase of a lot of Masbate common native cows and several of the best looking native bulls I could find. All other males were castrated and all males trespassing upon the property were castrated also. In five years the herd, although of pure native stock, stood out amongst the other herds on the range as by far the best. At that time the average weight of cattle from Masbate slaughtered in the Manila matadera was 85 kilos dressed. Bear this in mind. At this time I was able to obtain from the government two half-breed Ongole In dian bulls and these were turned into th.* herd. Shortly after this I was able to buy from various sources ten full blooded Ongole bulls. I selected the Ongole be cause of his shorter horns and to me bet ter beef type. I was not able to confine the service of these full blooded bulls to my own herd as my neighbors, while in terested, were not interested enough to buy bulls of their own; for a number of years we have had to go into the business of towing bulls back to the herd from ten, fifteen and twenty miles away, so that the bulls could render the service for which they were bought. At first I got hot in the collar over this sequestering of my property, but gradually I recognized and was satisfied with the fact that the bulls were bettering the general condition and that was my final object anyway. So as young half breed bulls came into being the best of these were turned loose on the range entire and the others castrated. The re sult of this has been that Masbate cattle slaughtered in the matadera at Manila have increased to an average of 112 kilos dressed or an increase of 32", in net beef per animal. This is what is known as the common native stock of the ranges, now. Where the government hampers the in dustry the most, is in its taxation, and in allowing the importation of beef animak from foreign countries which are from time to time badly infected with dead ly cattle diseases, thus keeping infection ever alive in the local herds. If you will as a grower of cattle gather together a lot of the. common native range stock of Masbate, bring it to Manila, slaughter it and sell the dressed beef and the offal for the best price obtainable you will find that 30.29V, of the total expenses June, 1926 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL of getting the animal here will be govern ment charges in some form or other; you will find that these charges amount to 9.66'/< of the gross receipts for the animal, and in this there is not included two char ges of the merchants tax at 1%7< each, paid by wholesaler and retailer of the beef after the beef has left the hands of the grower. The grower does not pay tho merchants tax on his sales. It is safe to say that on every kilo of Philippine grown fresh beef bought by the consumer he pays not less than 12 centavos per kilo to the government in some form of taxation. This is too much of a charge for government to make, as it is a direct attack upon the energy of the people who need the beef to meet the harder work of today; a direct attack upon the industry which will furnish work animals to increase the wealth of the country. Trespassing in Our Neighbor’s Backyard After Big Game in the Indochina Wilderness The interior country to the north and east of Saigon is sandy and as the rain water rapidly disappears below the surface of the ground cultivation is limited to a few favor ed spots. There is a sparse vegetation of palms and second growth covering most of the area but here and there immense grassy plains interperse. Apparently at some pre historic date the country was favored with a more uniform rainfall and was more thoroughly cultivated. This guess is cor roborated by the extensive Buddhist temple rums completely hidden by jungle and but recently discovered. The country now lies practically uninha bited except by wild game. Great herds of deer, pigs, bison and elephants find food and refuge in the areas too unproductive for humans to occupy, and along with these (Photo bq J. L. mqert. Author) Qood Biq CJam« Counlrq. Indochina: Inael, Camp on River Bank. grass eaters, and feeding upon them, are tigers and leopards. There are in addition many other animals more or less rare, such as goats, bear and rhinoceros, and also a wonderful variety of birds, including pea cocks, pheasants, quails, ducks and pigeons. Strange to say there is one crop that seems to do fairly well in this semiarid region, and that is rubber. We have been led to believe that rubber requires a fairly uniform rainfall but the beautiful and thrifty groves along the railroad north of The industry should be absolutely free, in order to create a greater interest in it and thus a greater production of the neces sary work animals to wrest greater wealth out of the vacant lands now absolutely idle. It is my idea that an Animal Standard ization Board should be provided for by legislation; this board to consist of men actually engaged in the business of grow ing and developing cattle, the Director of Agriculture to be its Chairman. The funds received from the registration and transfer of animals should go to the board as a fund with which to work out through importa tion of high grade sires a type of animal suitable to the climatic conditions govern ing here which will in the end give the quota of animals necessary to perform the work of the country and give the people a plentiful supply of cheap beef. H. L. Heath. Saigon seem to contradict this. The rubber trees so completely shade the ground that little moisture is lost by evaporation, and rubber can be grown where apparently no other crop can. There is tremendous expansion in the in dustry there. New clearings and plantings are seen by the hundreds of square miles. Although personally I am not too optimistic about rubber in the Philippines, still I am sure that it would grow very well and be a wonderful help toward reforesting our co gon hills. Cattle and rice boats running between Manila and Saigon make the trip in five days and charge about sixty pesos passage. This puts a hunt in that country within the means of most any enthusiast who will save his pennies for the purpose. Some provinces require hunting licenses but in only one, Dalat, the mountain summer re sort, is the license expensive. Better hunt ing, I believe, is to be had in many other sections. On March 14 of this year Roy Dixon and I left for Saigon via Hongkong. It was warm and stuffy aboard the President Grant, but it was not like that in Hongkong. I had neglected to provide heavy clothing, and believe that I had the distinction of being the only person in Hongkong that day dressed in white drill. Saigon is always a little warmer than Manila. We expected to join Mr. C. D. Squires in Saigon and hunt with him. We found his brother Roy in the hospital suffering from sun stroke. A mild form of sun stroke seems to be of common occurence there. Roy di rected us to Annum, along the coast, to find “C. D.” and Dr. Meisch, from Fort McKin ley, as they were hunting with a profes sional guide, a Frenchman ly the name of F. J. de Fosse. We were fortunate in meeting a former employe of the customs service who had helped us in Phnom Penh two years before. He put our baggage through and got out our firearms permits for us before offices closed, on the day of our arrival. It is ad visable to take on an assistant for these duties, as a stranger is so badly handicaped in language; although all officials were friendly and helpful. We gave our man ten pesos and a box of Manila cigars. He seem ed pleased. At Gia Huynh, 120 kilometers up the railroad, we found “C. D.” and the doctor. Each had a good bag. The doctor had killed a fine tiger as it w'as stalking a deer, which he himself was stalking. He also had several fine specimens of bison, water buf falo and an elephant. “C. D.” had a very fine large tiger and several water buffaloes. Many of you who read this have had the pleasure of seeing his trophies in SquiresBingham Company’s windows recently. It now developed that both Squires bro thers and Dixon preferred to move on to Cambodia, where we had hunted two years ago. It seemed to me that a fourth member would make the party too large, so I em ployed de Fosse for a hunt in his territory. 1 did not regret my decision, as de Fosse knows his stuff and is a capital hunting companion. One immediately forgets the relation of employer and employe and is only conscious of a new friend. He has guid ed and hunted for market in that locality for many years, and he is undoubtedly an authority on the habits and haunts of na tive game. March 20, the day of our arrival at de Fosse’s house, he and I walked out a short distance from the house to see what we could see. To the left of the trail I saw through the bush what looked like one of the old cast-iron lions that were in vogue years ago as lawn ornaments. As I stopped to look closer it dropped its head to the ground, which relieved me of the doubt as to whether or not it was something to shoot. After the shot it rolled off the ant hill where it had been crouching, and with a deep growl made for the grass. Now even a house cat is no slouch ir. a hand to hand encounter, and as this was no house cat I was perfectly willing to accept de Fosse’s suggestion that we come back after it next morning. With a double-barrel shotgun and two trackers I went out next morning, and found the leopard dead. I was well pleased with the first day’s hunt. The next few days we hunted without success for a bison cow, for tiger bait. A cow was needed, as a bull would be too heavy to haul on a cart. The system used in getting a tiger is to select a place where tigers frequently pass, build a blind of grass and leaves and bring a dead animal as bait to the blind. A certain ripeness must be attained before the tiger can locate the bait; his sense of smell is not more keen than a man’s. The bait is inspected twice daily. When it is found to have been partially eaten, the hunter crawls into the blind to await the tiger’s return for a se cond helping. A screen is also built, and a trail cleaned to the rear, to enable the hunter to approach the bait silently, in
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