There are in the neighborhood of 400 domestic carabaos owned in Bontoc
and Samoki. Most of them run half wild in the mountains encircling
the pueblos. Such as are in the mountains receive neither herding,
attention in breeding, feed, nor salt from their owners. The young
are dropped in February and March, and their owners mark them by
slitting the ear, each person recognizing his own by the mark.
A herd of seventeen, consisting of animals belonging to five
owners, ranges in the river bottom and among the sementeras close
to Bontoc. These animals are more tame than those of the mountains,
but receive little more attention, except that they are taught to
perform a certain unique labor in preparing the sementeras for rice,
as has been noted in the section on agriculture. This is the only
use to which the Bontoc carabao is put as a power in industry. He
is seldom sold outside the pueblo and is raised for consumption,
chiefly on various ceremonial occasions.
Four men in Bontoc own fifty carabaos each. Three others have a
herd of thirty in joint ownership. Others own five and six each,
and again a single carabao may be the joint property of two and even
six individuals. Carabaos are valued at from 40 to 70 pesos.
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