Domestic Animals
by Richard Lamb Allen · English · Gutenberg #34175 · 510,580 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Domestic Animals
Author: Richard Lamb Allen
Release date: October 31, 2010 [eBook #34175]
Language: English
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* * * * *
[Illustration: frontispiece]
DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
OF THE
HORSE, MULE, CATTLE, SHEEP, SWINE,
POULTRY, AND FARM DOGS.
WITH DIRECTIONS FOR
THEIR MANAGEMENT, BREEDING, CROSSING, REARING,
FEEDING, AND PREPARATION FOR A
PROFITABLE MARKET
ALSO,
THEIR DISEASES, AND REMEDIES.
TOGETHER WITH
FULL DIRECTIONS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE DAIRY.
BY R. L. ALLEN,
AUTHOR OF "COMPEND OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE," ETC.
NEW-YORK:
ORANGE JUDD, 41 PARK ROW.
AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHER.
1865.
Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year 1847
By RICHARD L. ALLEN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
INTRODUCTION.
The object of the following work, on the History, Breeding, Management,
Diseases, &c., of Domestic Animals, is to afford the Stock-breeder and
Grazier a connected view of the entire subject in which he has so deep
an interest. The writer has endeavored to compress within the limited
space assumed as necessary to secure a general circulation and perusal,
such principles and practice, and give to each that relative prominence,
which it becomes the practical man to observe, to realize the greatest
amount of value for the labor and capital devoted to his pursuits.
Their history is essential, as it shows their introduction into the
United States, their progress during the various stages of their
improvement, and the comparative value of the improved and ordinary
breeds. A knowledge of the best mode of breeding and management is of
still higher importance. The first will enable the breeder to preserve
the high character of the animals in his hands, or perhaps still farther
to advance them; while proper management and feeding will prevent that
deterioration and loss from disease, which frequently subtract so much
from his profits.
A larger space has been purposely devoted to the last topics, in
preference to the subject of diseases, as prevention is not only less
troublesome than cure, but much more economical. Feeding and management,
after breeding, are really the important objects in view to the
Stock-breeder and Grazier, for if these be judiciously attended to,
disease among the herds will rarely be known.
The subject of animal diseases is complicated and little understood; and
to be properly comprehended, requires years close, intelligent study,
under every advantage for obtaining the necessary information. Nearly
every disorder assumes various shades of difference, and to remove it
effectually a corresponding change of treatment is required. How absurd
then the idea, that a compilation of formal remedies, administered by an
unskilful or inexperienced manager, will be of material service in
rescuing his herds or flocks from the ravages of disease. All that can
consistently be done, is to give a few simple remedies for the most
common and well-known ailments, and leave to nature or a professional
farrier, such as are more complex or unusual.
This work (with many subsequent and important additions) constitutes a
small part of the "Compend of American Agriculture," the favorable
reception of which, though but recently given to the public, has induced
the writer to offer this important division of the subject in its
present detached form.
New York, November, 1847
INDEX.
PAGE
Animals, domestic, reared in the U. States 9
their number and value 9
their improvement 10
adaptation to various objects 10
general form and characteristics 13
the lungs 14
respiration 14
effects of 17
perspiration 18
food which supplies respiration 18
circumstances which augment respiration 19
food 21
purposes fulfilled by food 22
nutritive qualities for various animals 23
profit of feeding 23
See CATTLE, SHEEP, &c.
Ass, the 181
varieties 181
characteristics 182
breeding in the U. States 182
as a beast of burden 183
Breeding--principles of 11
See CATTLE, SHEEP, &c.
Cattle--neat or horned 26
various domestic breeds 26
native cattle 27
Devons 29
short horns 30
Herefords 35
Ayrshire 38
management of calves 39
breeding 41
breaking steers 42
management of oxen 42
fattening and stall-feeding 45
Diseases 41, 50
hoven 50
choking 52
inflammation of stomach 52
mange or scab 52
horn-ail--jaundice 53
mad-itch--bloody murrain 54
hoof-ail 55
loss of cud--scours or diarrh[oe]a--warbles or
grubs--wounds--puerperal or milk-fever 56
caked bags--garget--sore teats--warts 57
Cows for dairy 60
management of 61
milking 61
See DAIRY.
Comparative value of oxen and horses 190
Churns 69
Dairy, the 60
Dairy--selection and management of cows 60, 61
milking 61
properties of milk 62
variations in 63
cream--clouted ditto 65
Making butter from sour, sweet, and clouted cream 66, 67
sourness of cream 68
quickness in churning 68
over-churning 69
temperature of milk and cream 69
advantages of churn'g the whole 69
cleanliness in churning 70
premium butter, how made 70
Orange county do. do. 71
Making cheese, how effected 72
creamed and uncreamed 73
buttermilk cheese 73
whey do. 74
vegetable substances added 74
preparation of rennet 75
different qualities of cheese 77
warming the milk 77
quality of rennet 78
quantity of rennet 78
treatment of curd 79
separation of whey 80
cheese, salting 81
addition of cream 81
size of cheese 81
mode of curing 82
ammoniacal cheese 82
inoculating do. 82
premium cheese, how made 83
Ducks--see POULTRY.
Farm dogs 207-214
Feeding defined 21
See CATTLE, SHEEP, &c.
Food, comparative nutritive qualities of 22
how given, purposes fulfilled by it 22
changes in 24
See ANIMALS, PRODUCTS, &c.
Geese--see POULTRY.
Guinea-hen--see ditto.
Hens--see POULTRY.
Hinny--see ASS.
Horse--the Arabian and Barb 138
the English 139
American 141
Arabians in America 139, 140
Ranger, the Barb--Bussorah--Narraganset pacers--Messenger,
imported 140
Morgan horses 142
Canadian and Spanish 143
Conestoga 143
Norman 144
Cart, Cleveland bay, Belfounder 145
Eclipse, American 141
points of 146
habits 147
breeding 148
management of colts 149
breaking 150
longevity, feeding 151
Diseases 154
glanders 154
lampas, heaves, &c. 155
catarrh or distemper, spasmodic colic 156
flatulent colic 158
inflammation of bowels 159
physicking 162
worms 164
bots 164
wind-galls 165
the fetlock 166
cutting 166
sprain of the coffin-joint--ringbone 167
enlargement of the hock 168
curb 168
bone-spavin--swelled legs 170
grease 171
setons 173
founder--poison from weeds 174
inflammation of the eyes 175
stings of hornets, &c. 175
sprain 175
bruises--fistula 176
wounds--galls 176
shoeing, contraction of the foot 176
corns 177
over-reach, forging or clicking 178
the bearing-rein 178
the bit 179
stables 180
comparative labor with oxen 190
Mule, the--breeding in the U. S. 183
rearing and management 184
advantages over horse labor 185
valuable qualities 185
enduringness of 186
in California 188
economy of mule-labor 189
Poultry--their value 214
Hens--constituent of eggs 214
food 215
general management 216
the poultry-house 218
varieties 220, 221
diseases 222
Turkey, the 223
breeding and management 223
Peacock, the 224
Goose, the--varieties--breeding 225
feeding and food 225
Ducks--feeding--varieties 226
breeding and rearing 227
Sheep, the 84
uses of--importance of 85
varieties of wild--domesticated 87
native 89
Merino, the, history of 90
exportation from Spain 92
importation into the U. States 93
varieties 94
Saxon, the 96
Rambouillet, the 99
history of Merino in U. States 101
improvements of 102
peculiarities of 103
breeding 104
localities for rearing 106
South-Down, the, history of 106
Cheviot, the 109
Long-wools, the 110
improvement of the Bakewell 110
improvement of Cotswold and Lincolnshire 112
peculiarities of the Long-wools 113
importation into the U. States 113
breeding sheep 113
Winter management 116
sheep-barns and sheds 116
racks, mangers, and troughs 117
food 118
management of ewes, yeaning 119
management of lambs 119
castrating and docking 120
tagging or clatting 121
Summer management and food 121
washing 122
shearing 124
smearing and salving 125
weaning 126
drafting 126
stall feeding--management on the prairies 127
Diseases 128
diarrh[oe]a or scours 129
looseness in lambs, dysentery 130
hoven, braxy 130
costiveness, stretches, poison, inflammation of lungs, rot 131
foot-rot 132
flies, maggots, gad-fly 133
swollen mouth, foul noses, weakness, scab 134
ticks, pelt-rot, staggers or sturdy 135
abortion, garget, bleeding 136
wounds 137
to protect from wolves and foxes 138
Shepherd's dog 209
Swine 192
various breeds 194
breeding and rearing 198
rearing and fattening, large weights 199
treatment of food 201
products of the carcass 202
lard oil, how made 203
slearine and oleine 203
curing pork and hams 203
Diseases 204
coughs and inflammation of the lungs, costiveness, itch,
kidney-worm 205
blind staggers 206
Wild Boar 193
DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS--GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING, NUTRITION,
MANAGEMENT, &c.
The principal domestic animals reared for economical purposes in the
United States, are Horned or neat cattle, the Horse, the Mule, Sheep,
and Swine. A few Asses are bred, but for no other object than to keep up
the supply of jacks for propagating mules. We have also goats, rabbits,
and the house domestics, the dog and cat; the two former, only in very
limited numbers, but both the latter much beyond our legitimate wants.
There have been a few specimens of the Alpaca imported, and an
arrangement is now in progress for the introduction of a flock of
several hundred, which, if distributed among intelligent and wealthy
agriculturists, as proposed, will test their value for increasing our
agricultural resources. We shall confine ourselves to some general
considerations, connected with the first-mentioned and most important of
our domestic animals.
Their number as shown by the agricultural statistics collected in 1839,
by order of our General Government, was 15,000,000 neat cattle;
4,335,000 horses and mules, (the number of each not being specified;)
19,311,000 sheep; and 26,300,000 swine. There is much reason to question
the entire accuracy of these returns, yet there is doubtless an
approximation to the truth. Sheep have greatly increased since that
period, and would probably number, the present year, (1848,) not less
than 30,000,000; and if our own manufactures continue to thrive, and we
should moreover become wool exporters, of which there is now a
reasonable prospect, an accurate return for 1850, will undoubtedly give
us not less than 33,000,000 for the entire Union. There has been a great
increase in the value of the other animals enumerated, but not in a
ratio corresponding with that of sheep. This is not only manifest in
their augmented numbers, but in the gradual and steady improvement of
the species.
It may be safely predicted, that this improvement will not only be
sustained, but largely increased; for there are some intelligent and
spirited breeders to be found in every section of the country, whose
liberal exertions and successful examples are doing much for this
object. Wherever intelligence and sound judgment are to be found, it
will be impossible long to resist the effects of a comparison between
animals, which, on an equal quantity of the same food, with the same
attention and in the same time, will return 50, 20, or even 10 per cent.
more in their intrinsic value or marketable product, than the ordinary
class. This improvement has been, relatively, most conspicuous in the
Western and Southern states; not that the present average of excellence
in their animals surpasses, or even reaches that of the North and East;
but the latter have long been pursuing this object, with more or less
energy, and they have for many years had large numbers of excellent
specimens of each variety; while with few exceptions, if we exclude the
blood-horse or racing nag, the former have, till recently, paid
comparatively little attention to the improvement of their domestic
animals. The spirit for improvement through extensive sections, is now
awakened, and the older settled portions of the country may hereafter
expect competitors, whose success will be fully commensurate with their
own. Before going into the management of the different varieties, we
will give some general principles and remarks applicable to the
treatment of all.
_The purpose for which animals are required_, should be first
determined, before selecting such as may be necessary either for
breeding or use. Throughout the Northeastern states, cows for the dairy,
oxen for the yoke, and both for the butcher, are wanted. In much of the
West and South, beef alone is the principal object; while the dairy is
neglected, and the work of the ox is seldom relied on, except for
occasional drudgery.
Sheep may be wanted almost exclusively for the fleece, or for the fleece
and heavy mutton, or in the neighborhood of markets, for large early
lambs. The pastures and winter food, climate, and other conditions,
present additional circumstances, which should be well considered before
determining on the particular breed, either of cattle or sheep, that
will best promote the interest of the farmer.
The kind of work for which the horse may be wanted, whether as a
roadster, for the saddle, as a heavy team horse, or the horse of all
work, must be first decided, before selecting the form or character of
the animal.
The range of pig excellence is more circumscribed, as it is only
necessary to breed such as will yield the greatest amount of valuable
carcass, within the shortest time, and with the least expense.
PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING.
All breeding is founded on the principle, that _like begets like_. This
is, however, liable to some exceptions, and is much more generally true
when _breeding down_ than when _breeding up_. If two animals (which can
never be exactly similar in all respects) are requisite to the
perpetuation of the species, it necessarily results, that the progeny
must differ in a more or less degree from each parent. With wild
animals, and such of the domestic as are allowed to propagate without
the interference of art, and whose habits, treatment, and food are
nearly similar to their natural condition, the change through successive
generations is scarcely perceptible. It is only when we attempt to
improve their good qualities, that it is essential carefully to
determine, and rigidly to apply, what are adopted as the present
scientific principles of breeding. We cannot believe that we have
penetrated beyond the mere threshold of this art. Unless, then, we
launch into experiments, which are necessarily attended with
uncertainty, our duty will be, to take for our guide the most successful
practice of modern times, until further discoveries enable us to modify
or add to such as are already known and adopted. We may assume, then, as
the present rules for this art,
1st. That the animals selected for breed, should unite in themselves all
the good qualities we wish to perpetuate in the offspring.
2d. These qualities, technically called _points_, should be inbred in
the animals as far as practicable, by a long line of descent from
parents similarly constituted. The necessity for this rule is evident
from the fact, that in mixing different species, and especially
mongrels, with a long-established breed, the latter will most strongly
stamp the issue with its own peculiarities. This is forcibly illustrated
in the case of the Devon cattle, an ancient race, whose color, form, and
characteristics are strikingly perpetuated, sometimes to the sixth or
even a later generation. So far is this principle carried by many
experienced breeders, that they will use an animal of indifferent
external appearance, but of approved descent, (_blood_,) in preference
to a decidedly superior one, whose pedigree is imperfect.
3d. All the conditions of soil, situation, climate, treatment, and food,
should be favorable to the object sought.
4th. As a general rule, the female should be relatively larger than the
male. This gives ample room for the perfect development of the f[oe]tus,
easy parturition, and a large supply of milk for the offspring, at a
period in its existence, when food has a greater influence in perfecting
character and form, than at any subsequent time.
5th. Exceptions to this rule may be made, when greater size is required
than can be obtained from the female, and especially when more vigor and
hardiness of constitution are desirable. For this purpose, strong
masculine development in the sire is proper, and if otherwise
unattainable, something of coarseness may be admitted, as this may be
afterwards corrected, and nothing will atone for want of constitution
and strength.
6th. Pairing should be with a strict reference to correcting the
imperfections of one animal, by a corresponding excellence in the other.
7th. _Breeding in-and-in_, or propagating from animals nearly allied,
may be tolerated under certain circumstances, though seldom; and only in
extreme cases between those of the same generation, as brother and
sister. When the animal possesses much stamina and peculiar merit, which
it is desired to perpetuate in the breed, it may be done either in the
ascending or descending line, as in breeding the son to the parent, or
the parent to his own progeny. This has been practised with decided
advantage, and in some cases has even been continued successively, as
low as the sixth generation.
8th. It is always better to avoid close relationship, by the selection
of equally meritorious stock-getters of the same breed, from other
sources.
9th. Wholesome, nutritious food, at all times sufficient to keep the
animals steadily advancing, should be provided, but they must never be
allowed to get fat. Of the two evils, starving is preferable to surfeit.
Careful treatment, and the absence of disease, must be always fully
considered.
10th. Animals should never be allowed to breed either too early or too
late in life. These periods cannot be arbitrarily laid down, but must
depend on their time of maturity, the longevity of the breed, and the
stamina of the individual.
11th. No violent cross, or mixing of distinct breeds, should ever be
admitted for the purposes of perpetuation, as of cattle of diverse
sizes; horses of unlike characters; the Merino and the long-wools, or
even the long, or short, and the middle-wools. For carcass and
constitution, these crosses are unexceptionable; and it is a practice
very common in this country, and judicious enough where the whole
produce is early destined for the shambles. But when the progeny are
designed for breeders, the practice should be branded with unqualified
reprehension.
GENERAL FORM AND CHARACTERISTICS.
Within certain limits, these may be reduced to a common standard. All
animals should have a good head, well set up; a clean fine muzzle, and a
blight, clear and full, yet perfectly placid eye. With the exception of
the dog and cat, whose original nature is ferocity, and whose whole
life, unless diverted from their natural instincts, is plunder and prey;
and the jockey racehorse, which is required to take the purse, at any
hazard of life or limb to the groom; a mild, quiet eye is indispensable
to the profitable use of the domestic brute. The neck should be well
formed, not too long, tapering to its junction with the head, and
gradually enlarging to a firm, well-expanded attachment to the back,
shoulders, and breast. The back or chine should be short, straight, and
broad; the ribs springing out from the backbone nearly at right angles,
giving a rounded appearance to the carcass, and reaching well behind to
a close proximity to the hip; tail well set on, and full at its junction
with the body, yet gradually tapering to fineness; thighs, fore-arms,
and crops well developed; projecting breast or brisket; the fore-legs
straight, and hind ones properly bent, strong and full where attached to
the carcass, but small and tapering below; good and sound joints; dense,
strong bones, but not large; plenty of fine muscle in the right places;
and hair or wool, fine and soft. The chest in all animals should be
full, for it will be invariably found, that only such will do the most
work, or fatten easiest on the least food.
The Lungs.
From the last-mentioned principle, founded on long experience and
observation, Cline inferred, and he has laid it down as an
incontrovertible position, that the lungs should always be large; and
Youatt expresses the same opinion. This is undoubtedly correct as to
working beasts, the horse and the ox, which require full and free
respiration, to enable them to sustain great muscular efforts. But later
physiologists have assumed, perhaps from closer and more accurate
observations, that the fattening propensity is in the ratio of the
smallness of the lungs. Earl Spencer has observed, that this is fully
shown in the pig, the sheep, the ox, and the horse, whose aptitude to
fatten and smallness of lungs, are in the order enumerated.
This position is further illustrated by the different breeds of the same
classes of animals. The Leicester sheep have smaller lungs than the
South Down; and it has been found, that a number of the former, on a
given quantity of food, and in the same time, reached 28 lbs. a quarter,
while the South Downs with a greater consumption of food, attained in
the same period, only 18 lbs. The Chinese pigs have much smaller lungs
than the Irish, and the former will fatten to a given weight, on a much
less quantity of food than the latter. (_Playfair._) The principle would
seem to be corroborated by the fact, that animals generally fatten
faster in proportion to the quantity of food they consume, as they
advance towards a certain stage of maturity; during all which time, the
secretion of internal fat is gradually compressing the size, by reducing
the room for the action of the lungs. Hence, the advantage of carrying
the fattening beast to an advanced point, by which not only the quality
of carcass is improved, but the quantity is relatively greater for the
amount of food consumed. These views are intimately connected, and fully
correspond, with the principles of
RESPIRATION IN ANIMALS.
From careful experiments, it has been found that all animals daily
consume a much larger quantity of food than the aggregate of what may
have been retained in the system, added to what has been expelled in the
f[oe]ces and urine, and what has escaped by perspiration. Boussingault,
who combines the characteristics of an ingenious chemist, a vigilant
observer, and a practical agriculturist, made an experiment with a
"milch-cow and a full-grown horse, which were placed in stalls so
contrived that the droppings and the urine could be collected without
loss. Before being made the subjects of experiment, the animals were
ballasted or fed for a month with the same ration that was furnished to
them, during the three days and three nights which they passed in the
experimental stalls. During the month, the weight of the animals did not
vary sensibly, a circumstance which happily enables us to assume that
neither did the weight vary during the seventy-two hours when they were
under especial observation.
The cow was foddered with after-math, hay, and potatoes; the horse with
the same hay and oats. The quantities of forage were accurately weighed,
and their precise degree of moistness and their composition were
determined from average samples. The water drunk was measured, its
saline and earthy constituents having been previously ascertained. The
excrementitious matters passed, were of course collected with the
greatest care; the excrements, the urine, and the milk were weighed, and
the constitution of the whole estimated from elementary analyses of
average specimens of each. The results of the two experiments are given
in the table on the next page.
The oxygen and hydrogen that are not accounted for in the sum of the
products have not disappeared in the precise proportions requisite to
form water; the excess of hydrogen amounts to as many as from 13 to 15
dwts. It is probable that this hydrogen of the food became changed into
water by combining during respiration with the oxygen of the air."
FOOD CONSUMED BY THE HORSE IN 24 HOURS.
Key to columns:
[F] = Forage.
[W] = Weight in the wet state
[D] = Weight in the dry state
-----+---+-------+-----------------------------------------------------------
| | | Elementary Matter in the Food.
[F] |[W]| [D] |-------+------------+------------+------------+------------
| | | | | | |Salts and
| | |Carbon.| Hydrogen. | Oxygen. | Azote. | Earths.
-----+---+-------+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------
|lb.|lb. oz.|lb. oz.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.
Hay |20 |17 4 | 7 11 | 0 10 7 | 6 8 8 | 0 3 2 | 1 6 14
Oats | 6 | 5 2 | 2 7 | 0 3 18 | 1 10 14 | 0 1 7 | 0 2 10
Water|43 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | 0 0 8
Total|69 |22 6 |10 6 | 1 2 5 | 8 7 2 | 0 4 9 | 1 9 12
-----+---+-------+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------
PRODUCTS VOIDED BY THE HORSE IN 24 HOURS.
-----------------+------------+------------+ ...
| | |
| Weight in | Weight in |
[P]=Products. | the wet | the dry |
| state. | state. |
-----------------+------------+------------+
|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|
[U]=Urine | 3 6 15 | 9 9 14 |
[E]=Excrements |38 2 2 | 9 5 6 |
-----------------+------------+------------+
[T]= Total |71 8 17 |10 3 0 |
[F]=Total matter}|69 0 0 |22 6 0 |
of the food}| | |
+------------+------------+
[D]=Difference |27 3 3 |12 3 0 |
-----------------+------------+------------+ ...
----+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Elementary Matter in the Products.
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[P] | | | | |Salts and
| Carbon. | Hydrogen. | Oxygen. | Azote. | Earths.
----+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.
[U] | 0 3 10 | 0 0 7 | 0 1 2 | 0 1 4 | 0 3 10
[E] | 3 7 17 | 0 5 15 | 3 6 14 | 0 2 10 | 1 6 10
----+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[T] | 3 11 7 | 0 6 2 | 3 7 16 | 0 3 14 | 1 10 0
[F] |10 6 0 | 1 2 5 | 8 7 2 | 0 4 9 | 1 9 12
| | | |
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[D] | 6 6 13 | 0 8 3 | 4 11 6 | 0 0 15 | 0 0 12
----+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
WATER CONSUMED BY THE HORSE |WATER VOIDED BY THE HORSE
IN 24 HOURS. | IN 24 HOURS.
------------------+---------------+--------------------+------------
| lbs. oz. | | lbs. oz.
With the hay | 2 3 |With the urine | 2 6
With the oats | 0 14 |With the excrements | 23 8
Taken as drink | 35 3 | |
+---------------| |------------
Total consumed | 38 4 | Total voided | 25 14
|Water consumed | 38 4
| |------------
Water exhaled by pulmonary and cutaneous transpiration | 12 6
-------------------------------------------------------+------------
* * * * *
FOOD CONSUMED BY THE COW IN 24 HOURS.
-------------------+------------+------------+ ...
| | |
[F]=Fodder. | Weight in | Weight in |
| the wet | the dry |
| state. | state. |
-------------------+------------+------------+
|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|
[P]=Potatoes | 40 2 5 |11 2 1 |
[H]=After-math hay | 20 1 2 |16 11 0 |
[W]=Water |160 0 0 | ... |
+------------+------------+
[T]= Total |220 3 7 |28 1 1 |
-------------------+------------+------------+ ...
----+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Elementary Matter in the Food.
[F] +------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
| | | | |Salts and
| Carbon. | Hydrogen. | Oxygen. | Azote. | Earths.
----+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.
[P] | 4 11 2 | 0 7 15 | 4 10 17 | 0 1 12 | 0 6 13
[H] | 7 11 11 | 0 11 7 | 5 10 17 | 0 4 17 | 1 8 6
[W] | ... | ... | ... | ... | 0 1 12
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[T] |12 10 13 | 1 7 2 |10 9 14 | 0 6 9 | 2 4 11
----+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
PRODUCTS VOIDED BY THE COW IN 24 HOURS.
------------------------+-------------+------------+ ...
| | |
| Weight in | Weight in |
[P]=Products. | the wet | the dry |
| state. | state. |
------------------------+-------------+------------+
| lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|
[E]=Excrements | 76 1 9 |10 8 12 |
[U]=Urine | 21 11 12 | 2 6 17 |
[M]=Milk | 22 10 10 | 3 1 0 |
+-------------+------------+
[T]=Total |120 11 11 |16 4 9 |
[F]= " matter of food |220 3 7 |28 1 1 |
+-------------+------------+
[D]=Difference | 99 3 16 |11 8 12 |
------------------------+-------------+------------+ ...
----+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Elementary Matter in the Products.
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[P] | | | | |Salts and
| Carbon. | Hydrogen. | Oxygen. | Azote. |Earths.
----+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.|lb. oz. dwt.
[E] | 4 7 0 | 0 6 13 | 4 0 9 | 0 2 19 | 1 3 8
[U] | 0 8 7 | 0 0 16 | 0 8 3 | 0 1 3 | 1 0 6
[M] | 1 8 3 | 0 3 3 | 0 10 6 | 0 1 9 | 0 1 16
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[T] | 6 11 10 | 0 10 12 | 5 6 18 | 9 5 11 | 2 5 10
[F] |12 10 13 | 1 7 2 |10 9 14 | 0 6 9 | 2 4 11
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[D] | 5 11 3 | 0 8 10 | 5 2 16 | 0 0 18 | 0 0 19
----+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
WATER CONSUMED BY THE COW | WATER VOIDED BY THE COW
IN 24 HOURS. | IN 24 HOURS.
------------------------+------------+----------------------+-----------
| lbs. oz. | | lbs. oz.
With the potatoes | 23 12 |With the excrements | 53 10
With the hay | 2 9 |With the urine | 15 14
Taken as drink | 132 0 |With the milk | 16 3
+------------+ +-----------
Total consumed | 158 5 | Total voided | 85 11
|Water consumed | 158 5
+-----------
Water passed off by pulmonary and cutaneous transpiration | 79 2
We here perceive a large loss of water, carbon, hydrogen, &c. Nearly all
this loss of carbon and hydrogen escaped by respiration, while most of
the water, oxygen, nitrogen, and salts, passed off in perspiration. In
further illustration of the subject of respiration, Liebig says, "from
the accurate determination of the quantity of carbon daily taken into
the system in the food, as well as of that proportion of it which passes
out of the body in the f[oe]ces and urine, _unburned_, that is, in some
form uncombined with oxygen, it appears that an adult taking moderate
exercise, consumes 13.9 oz. of carbon daily." The foregoing are facts in
the animal economy, capable of vast practical bearing in the management
of our domestic animals. But before following out these principles to
their application, let us briefly examine
The Effects of Respiration.
We have seen from the experiment of Boussingault, that there is a loss
of 6 lbs. 6 oz. of carbon, and 8 oz. 3 dwt. of hydrogen in the food of
the horse, and something less in that of the cow, every 24 hours, which
has not been left in the system, nor has it escaped by the evacuations.
What has become of so large an amount of solid matter? It has escaped
through the lungs and been converted into air. The carbon and hydrogen
of the food have undergone those various transformations which are
peculiar to the animal economy, digestion, assimilation, &c., which it
is not necessary, nor will our limits permit us here to explain; and
they appear at last in the veinous blood, which in the course of its
circulation is brought into the cells of the lungs. The air inhaled is
sent through every part of their innumerable meshes, and is there
separated from the blood, only by the delicate tissues or membranes
which enclose it. A portion of the carbon and hydrogen escapes from the
blood into the air-cells, and at the instant of their contact with the
air, they affect a chemical union with its oxygen, forming carbonic acid
and the vapor of water, which is then expired, and a fresh supply of
oxygen is inhaled. This operation is again repeated, through every
successive moment of animal existence.
Besides other purposes which it is probably designed to subserve, but
which have hitherto eluded the keenest research of chemical physiology,
one obvious result of respiration is, the elevation of the temperature
of the animal system. By the ever-operating laws of nature, this
chemical union of two bodies in the formation of a third, disengages
latent heat, which taking place in contact with the blood, is by it
diffused throughout the whole frame. The effect is precisely analogous
to the combustion of fuel, oils, &c., in the open air.
Perspiration
Is the counteracting agent which modifies this result, and prevents the
injurious effects, which, under exposure to great external heat, would
ensure certain destruction. And this too, it will have been seen, is
provided at the expense of the animal food. When from excessive heat,
caused by violent exercise or otherwise, by which respiration is
accelerated and the animal temperature becomes elevated, the papillae of
the skin pour the limpid fluid through their innumerable ducts, which in
its conversion into vapor, seize upon the animal heat and remove it from
the system, producing that delicious coolness so grateful to the
laboring man and beast in a sultry summer's day. These two opposing
principles, like the antagonistic operations of the regulator in
mechanics, keep up a perfect balance in the vital machine, and enable
that entire division of the animal creation, distinguished as
warm-blooded, including man and the brute, all the feathered tribes, the
whale, the seal, the walrus, &c., to maintain an equilibrium of
temperature, whether under the equator or the poles; on the peaks of
Chimborazo, the burning sands of Zahara, or plunged in the depths of the
Arctic Ocean.
The connection between the size of the lungs, and the aptitude of
animals to fatten, will be more apparent from the fact, that the carbon
and hydrogen which are abstracted, constitute two of the only three
elements of fat. The larger size, the fuller play, and the greater
activity of the lungs, by exhausting more of the materials of fat, must
necessarily diminish its formation in the animal system; unless it can
be shown, which has never yet been done, that the removal of a portion
of the fat-forming principles accelerates the assimilation of the
remainder.
The Food which supplies Respiration.
This, in the herbivorous animals, after they are deprived of the milk,
which furnishes it in abundance, is the starch, gum, sugar, vegetable
fats, and oils that exist in the vegetables, grain, and roots which they
consume; and in certain cases where there is a deficiency of other
food, it is sparingly furnished in woody and cellular fibre. All these
substances constitute the principal part of dry vegetable food, and are
made up of three elements, _which in starch, gum, cane-sugar, and
cellular fibre, exist in precisely the same proportions_, viz: 44 per
cent. of carbon, 6.2 of hydrogen, and 40.8 of oxygen.
Grape sugar, woody fibre, and vegetable and animal fats and oils are
made up of the same elements, but in different proportions, the last
containing much more carbon and hydrogen than those above specified. In
the fattening animals, it is supposed the vegetable fats and oils are
immediately transferred to the fat cells, undergoing only such slight
modification as perfectly adapts them to the animal economy, while
respiration is supplied by the other enumerated vegetable matters. If
these last are taken into the stomach beyond the necessary demand for
its object, they too are converted by the animal functions into fat, and
are stored up in the system for future use. But if the supply of the
latter is insufficient for respiration, it first appropriates the
vegetable fat contained in the food; if this is deficient, it draws on
the accumulated stores of animal fat already secreted in the system, and
when these too are exhausted, it seizes upon what is contained in the
tissues and muscle. When the animal commences drawing upon its own
resources for the support of its vital functions, deterioration begins;
and if long continued, great emaciation succeeds, which is soon followed
by starvation and death.
The carnivorous animals are furnished with their respiratory excretions,
from the animal fat and fibre which exist in their food, and which the
herbivorae had previously abstracted from the vegetable creation.
Circumstances which augment Respiration.
These are, exercise, cold, and an abundant supply of food. Exercise,
besides exhausting the materials of fat, produces a waste of fibre and
tissue, the muscular and nitrogenized parts of the animal system; and it
is obvious from the foregoing principles, that cold requires a
corresponding demand for carbon and hydrogen to keep up the vital
warmth. The consumption of food to the fullest extent required for
invigorating the frame, creates a desire for activity, and it insensibly
induces full respiration. The well-fed, active man, unconsciously draws
a full, strong breath; while the abstemious and the feeble, unwittingly
use it daintily, as if it were a choice commodity not to be lavishly
expended. If the first be observed when sleep has effectually arrested
volition, the expanded chest will be seen, heaving with the long-drawn,
sonorous breath; while that of the latter will exhibit the gentle repose
of the infant on its mother's breast.
The difference between the food of the inhabitants of the polar and
equatorial regions, is strikingly illustrative of the demands both for
breathing and perspiration. The latter are almost destitute of clothing,
and subsist on their light, juicy, tropical fruits, which contain
scarcely 12 per cent. of carbon, yet furnish all the elements for
abundant perspiration; while the former are imbedded in furs, and devour
gallons of train oil or its equivalent of fat, which contains nearly 80
per cent. of carbon, that is burnt up in respiration to maintain a
necessary warmth.
The bear retires to his den in the beginning of winter, loaded with fat,
which he has accumulated from the rich, oily mast abounding in the woods
in autumn. There he lies for months, snugly coiled and perfectly
dormant; the thickness of his shaggy coat, his dry bed of leaves, and
well-protected den, effectually guarding him from cold, which in
addition to his want of exercise, draw slightly upon respiration to keep
up the vital heat. When the stores of carbon and hydrogen contained in
the fat are expended, his hunger and cold compel him to leave his
winter-quarters, again to wander in pursuit of food.
Many of the swallow tribes, in like manner, hybernate in large hollow
trees, and for months eke out a torpid, scarcely perceptible existence,
independent of food. Activity and full respiration, on the return of
spring, demand a support, which is furnished in the myriads of flies
they daily consume. The toad and frog have repeatedly been found in a
torpid state, imbedded in limestones, sandstones, and the breccias,
where they were probably imprisoned for thousands of years without a
morsel of food; yet when exposed to the warmth of the vital air and the
stimulus of its oxygen, they have manifested all the activity of their
species. This they are enabled to sustain only by an enormous
consumption of insects.
Dr. Playfair states, that in an experiment made by Lord Ducie, 100 sheep
were placed in a shed, and ate 20 pounds of Swedes turnips each per day;
another 100 were placed in the open air, and ate 25 pounds per day; yet
the former, which had one-fifth less food, weighed, after a few weeks,
three pounds more per head than the latter. He then fed five sheep in
the open air, between the 21st November and 1st December. They consumed
90 pounds of food per day, the temperature being at 44 deg., and at the end
of this time, they weighed two pounds less than when first exposed. Five
sheep were then placed under a shed, and allowed to run about in a
temperature of 49 deg.. At first they consumed 82 pounds per day; then 70
pounds, and at the end of the time they had gained 23 pounds. Again,
five sheep were placed under a shed as before, and not allowed to take
any exercise. They ate at first, 64 pounds of food per day, then 58
pounds, and increased in weight 30 pounds. Lastly, five sheep were kept
quiet and covered, and in the dark. They ate 35 pounds per day, and
increased eight pounds.
Mr. Childers states, that 80 Leicester sheep in the open field, consumed
50 baskets of cut turnips per day, besides oil-cake. On putting them in
a shed, they were immediately able to consume only 30 baskets, and soon
after but 25, being only half the quantity required before, and yet they
fattened as rapidly as when eating the largest quantity. The minimum of
food, then, required for the support of animals, is attained when
closely confined in a warm, dark shelter; and the maximum, when running
at large, exposed to all weathers.
THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS.
This should be regulated by a variety of considerations. The young which
may be destined for maturity, should be supplied with milk from the dam
until weaning-time. No food can be substituted for the well-filled udder
of the parent, which is so safe, healthful, and nutritious. If from any
cause there is deficiency or total privation, it must be made up by that
kind of food, meal-gruel, &c., which, in its composition, approaches
nearest in quality to the milk. At a more advanced age, or the time for
weaning, grass, hay, roots, or grain, may be substituted, in quantities
sufficient to maintain a steady but _not a forced growth_. Stuffing can
only be tolerated in animals which are speedily destined for the
slaughter. Alternately improving and falling back, is injurious to all
stock. _An animal should never be fat but once._ Especially is high
feeding bad for breeding animals. Much as starving is to be deprecated,
the prejudicial effects of repletion are still greater. The calf or lamb
intended for the butcher, may be pushed forward with all possible
rapidity. Horses or colts should never exceed a good working or breeding
condition.
Purposes fulfilled by different Kinds of Food.
The objects designed to be answered by food, are to a certain extent the
same. All food is intended to meet the demands of respiration and
nutrition, and fattening to a greater or less degree. But some are
better suited to one object than others, and it is for the intelligent
farmer to select such as will most effectually accomplish his particular
purposes.
The very young animal requires large quantities of the phosphate of lime
for the formation of bone; and this is yielded in the milk in larger
proportions than from any other food. The growing animal wants bone,
muscle, and a certain amount of fat, and these are procured from the
grasses, roots, and grain; from the former when fed alone, and from the
two latter when mixed with hay or grass.
Horses, cattle, and sheep need hay to qualify the too watery nature of
the roots, and the too condensed nutritiveness of the grain. Animals
that are preparing for the shambles, require vegetable oils or fat,
starch, sugar, or gum. The first is contained in great abundance in flax
and cotton-seed, the sun-flower, and many other of the mucilaginous
seeds. Indian corn is the most fattening grain. The potato contains the
greatest proportion of starch, and the sugar-beet has large quantities
of sugar, and both consequently are good for stall-feeding. The ripe
sugar-cane is perhaps the most fattening of vegetables, if we except the
oily seeds and grain. The Swedes turnip is a good food to commence with
fattening cattle and sheep; but where great ripeness in animals is
desired, they should be followed with beets, carrots or potatoes, and
grain.
The table of the average composition of the different crops, which we
subjoin from Johnston, shows the comparative qualities of various kinds
of food, and it will be found a valuable reference for their nutritive
and fattening qualities. He says, "In drawing up this table, I have
adopted the proportions of gluten, for the most part, from Boussingault.
Some of them, however, appear to be very doubtful. The proportions of
fatty matter are also very uncertain. With a few exceptions, those above
given have been taken from Sprengel, and they are, in general, stated
considerably too low. It is an interesting fact, that the proportion of
fatty matter in and immediately under the husk of the grains of corn, is
generally much greater than in the substance of the corn itself. Thus I
have found the pollard of wheat to yield more than twice as much oil as
the fine flour obtained from the same sample of grain. The four
portions separated by the miller from a superior sample of wheat grown
in the neighborhood of Durham, gave of oil respectively: fine flour, 1.5
per cent.; pollard, 2.4; boxings, 3.6; and bran, 3.3 per cent. Dumas
states that the husk of oats sometimes yields as much as five or six per
cent. of oil." The columns under starch, &c., and fatty matter, denote
the value for respiration or sustaining life, and the fattening
qualities; that under gluten, the capacity for yielding muscle and
supporting labor; and saline matter indicates something of the
proportions which are capable of being converted into bones.
Water. Husk or Starch, Gluten, Fatty Saline
woody gum, and albumen, matter. matter
fibre. sugar. legumen, &c.
Wheat, 16 15 55 10 to 15 2 to 4 J. 2.0
Barley, 15 15 60 12? 2.5 J. 2.0
Oats, 16 20 50 14.5? 5.6 J. 3.5
Rye, 12 10 60 14.5 3.0 1.0
Indian corn, 14 15? 50 12.0 5 to 9 D. 1.5
Buckwheat, 16? 25? 50 14.5 0.4? 1.5
Beans, 16 10 40 28.0 2 + 3.0
Peas, 13 8 50 24.0 2.8? 2.8
Potatoes, 75? 5? 12? 2.25 0.3 0.8 to 1
Turnips, 85 3 10 1.2 ? 0.8 to 1
Carrots, 85 3 10 2.0 0.4 1.0
Meadow hay, 14 30 40 7.1 2 to 5 D. 5 to 10
Clover hay, 14 25 40 9.3 3.0 9
Pea straw, 10 to 15 25 45 12.3 1.5 5
Oat do. 12 45 35 1.3 0.8 6
Wheat do. 12 to 15 50 30 1.3 0.5 5
Barley do. do. 50 30 1.3 0.8 5
Rye do. do. 45 38 1.3 0.5 3
Indian corn do. 12 25 52 3.0 1.7 4
This table, it will be perceived, is far from settling the _precise_
relative value of the different enumerated articles. An absolute,
unchanging value can never be assumed of any one substance, as the
quality of each must differ with the particular variety, the soil upon
which it is grown, the character of the season, the manner of curing,
and other circumstances. An approximate relative value is all that can
be expected, and this we may hope ere long to obtain, from the spirit of
analytical research, which is now developed and in successful progress.
More especially do we need these investigations with _American
products_, some of which are but partially cultivated in Europe, whence
we derive most of our analyses. And many which are there reared, differ
widely from those produced here, as these also differ from each other.
What, for instance, is the character of _meadow hay_? We know that this
varies as four to one, according to the particular kinds grown; and our
Indian corn has certainly a less range than from five to nine.
The Changes in the Food of Animals.
Potatoes, when first ripe, are estimated to be worth, for feeding
purposes, nearly twice as much as when old; and the relative value of
the different kinds, varies greatly at the same age and under similar
conditions of growth. Perrault ascertained by careful experiment, that
hay, clover, and lucerne lost much of their nutritive qualities by
drying, and in lucerne this loss amounted to about thirty-five per cent.
This is an important consideration in the feeding of green and dry
forage. Oats are among the best feed, both for young and working
animals; but it has been found that they are greatly improved for the
latter, and perhaps for both, by allowing the new crop to remain till
the latter part of winter, before feeding.
The improvement by steaming and cooking food, is seldom sufficiently
appreciated. Food properly managed, can never be made worse by cooking
for any stock; although it has not been considered so essential for
working, and generally, for ruminating animals, as for swine, and such
as were stall-feeding. But the alteration produced in cooking, by
fitting it for a more ready assimilation, must, as a general rule, add
much to the value of the food, and the rapid improvement of the animal.
The effect of slight fermentation, or souring the food, produces the
same result. Animals accustomed to this acid food, will reject what is
unprepared when they can get at the former; and we have no doubt, from
our own experience, that there is a saving in thus preparing it, from 20
to 40 per cent. A mixture of food should be supplied to all animals.
Like man, they tire of any constant aliment. For such, especially, as
are fattening, and which it is desirable to mature with the greatest
rapidity, a careful indulgence of their appetite should be studied. They
should be provided with whatever they most crave, if it be adapted to
the secretion of fat. Cutting, crushing, and grinding the food; cooking,
souring, and mixing it, are each by themselves an improvement for
feeding; and frequently two or more of these preparations combined, are
of great utility in effecting the object proposed.
The Profit of Feeding.
It is evident, that this consists in a valuable return from the animal
of the food consumed. In the horse, this can only be received in labor
or breeding; in the ox, from labor and flesh; in the cow, from the milk,
the flesh, and her young. In the sheep, it may be returned in its
fleece, its carcass, or its progeny; and in the swine only by its
progeny and flesh. The manure we expect from all; and if this be not
secured and judiciously used, few animals about the farm will be found
to yield a satisfactory profit for their food and attention; though it
is evident, it should form but a small part of the return looked for.
Animals are only profitable to the farmer, when they yield a daily
income, as in their milk or labor; or annually, by their young or
fleece; unless it be in a course of regular improvement, either in their
ordinary growth or preparation for the butcher. The animal must consume
a certain amount of food merely to keep up its stationary condition, and
to supply the materials for waste, respiration, perspiration, and the
evacuations. These must first be provided for in all cases, before the
farmer can expect any thing for the food.
Frequent observation has shown, that an ox will consume about two per
cent, of his weight of hay per day, to maintain his condition. If put to
moderate labor, an increase of this quantity to three per cent., will
enable him to perform his work, and still maintain his flesh. If to be
fattened, he requires about 41/2 per cent. of his weight daily, in
nutritious food. A cow to remain stationary and give no milk, eats two
per cent. of her weight daily; and if in milk, she will consume three
per cent. If these statements are correct, which it is certain they are
in principle, though they may not be entirely in degree, it will require
the same food to keep three yoke of cattle in idleness, as two at work;
and the food of every two that are idle, will nearly support one under
the most rapid condition of fatting. Two cows may be kept in milk, with
the same feed that will keep three without.
No practice is more impolitic, than barely to sustain the stock through
the winter, or a part of the year, as is the case in too many instances,
and allow them to improve only when turned on grass in summer. Besides
subjecting them to the risk of disease, consequent upon their privation
of food, nearly half the year is lost in their use, or in maturing them
for profitable disposal; when if one-third of the stock had been sold,
the remainder would have been kept in a rapidly improving condition, and
at three years of age, they would probably be of equal value, as
otherwise at five or six. It is true that breed has much to do with this
rapid advancement, but breed is useless without food to develop and
mature it.
CHAPTER II.
NEAT OR HORNED CATTLE.
The value of our neat cattle exceeds that of any other of the domestic
animals in the United States. They are as widely disseminated, and more
generally useful. Like sheep and all our domestic brutes, they have been
so long and so entirely subject to the control of man, that their
original type is unknown. They have been allowed entire freedom from all
human direction or restraint for hundreds of years, on the boundless
pampas of South America, California, and elsewhere; but when permitted
to resume that natural condition, by which both plants and animals
approximate to the character of their original head, they have scarcely
deviated in any respect, from the domestic herds from which they are
descended. From this it may be inferred, that our present races do not
differ, in any of their essential features and characteristics, from the
original stock.
Various Domestic Breeds.
Cultivation, feed, and climate, have much to do in determining the form,
size, and character of cattle. In Lithuania, cattle attain an immense
size, with but moderate pretensions to general excellence, while the
Irish Kerry and Scotch Grampian cows but little exceed the largest
sheep; yet the last are compact and well-made, and yield a good return
for the food consumed. Every country, and almost every district, has its
peculiar breeds, which by long association have become adapted to the
food and circumstances of its position, and when found profitable, they
should be exchanged for others, only after the most thorough trial of
superior fitness for the particular location, in those proposed to be
introduced.
More attention has been paid to the improvement of the various breeds of
cattle in England, than in any other country; and it is there they have
attained the greatest perfection in form and character for the various
purposes to which they are devoted. We have derived, directly from Great
Britain, not only the parent stock from which nearly all our cattle are
descended, but also most of those fresh importations, to which we have
looked for improvement on the present race of animals.
A few choice Dutch cattle, generally black and white, and of large size,
good forms, and good milkers, with a decided tendency to fatten, have
been occasionally introduced among us, but not in numbers sufficient to
keep up a distinct breed; and in the hands of their importers, or
immediate successors, their peculiar characteristics have soon become
merged in those herds by which they were surrounded. Some few French and
Spanish cattle, the descendants of those remote importations, made when
the colonies of those kingdoms held possession of our northern, western,
and southern frontiers, still exist in those sections; and although
possessing no claims to particular superiority, at least in any that
have come within our notice, yet they are so well acclimated, and
adapted to their various localities, as to render it inexpedient to
attempt supplanting them, except with such as are particularly
meritorious.
Native Cattle.
This is a favorite term with Americans, and comprehends every thing in
the country, excepting such as are of a pure and distinct breed. It
embraces some of the best, some of the worst, and some of almost every
variety, shape, color, and character of the bovine race. The designation
has no farther meaning, than that they are indigenous to the soil, and
do not belong to any well-defined or distinct variety.
The best native cattle of the Union are undoubtedly to be found in the
Northeastern states. Most of the early emigrant cattle in that section
were from the southern part of England, where the Devon cattle abound;
and though not at the present time bearing a close resemblance to that
breed, unless it has been impressed upon them by more recent
importations, yet a large number have that general approximation in
character, features, and color, which entitles them to claim a near
kindred with one of the choicest cultivated breeds. They have the same
symmetry, but not in general the excessive delicacy of form, which
characterizes the Devons; the same intelligence, activity, and vigor in
the working cattle, and the same tendency to fattening; but they are
usually better for the dairy than their imported ancestors. Some
valuable intermixtures have occasionally been made among them. Among
these, there have been many brindled cattle widely disseminated, of
great merit as workers, and not often surpassed for the dairy and
shambles.
The Herefords have in a few instances been introduced among the eastern
cattle, and apparently with great improvement. The importation made by
Admiral Coffin, of four choice Hereford bulls and cows, which were
presented to the State Agricultural Society of Massachusetts, nearly
thirty years since, is especially to be mentioned, as resulting in
decided benefit wherever they were disseminated. Some of the old
Yorkshire, or as they are sometimes styled, the long-horned Durhams,
have been introduced, though these have been isolated individuals and
never perpetuated as a separate breed. A few small importations have
been made of the Short Horns and Ayrshires, but neither of these have
been bred in the New England states in distinct herds, to any extent.
Their _native breed_ has hitherto, and generally with good reason,
possessed claims on the attention of their owners, which, with some
slight exceptions, it has not been in the power of any rivals to
supplant. With entire adaptedness to the soil, climate, and wants of the
farmer, an originally good stock has, in frequent instances, been
carefully fostered, and the breeding animals selected with a strict
reference to their fitness for perpetuating the most desirable
qualities. As a consequence of this intelligent and persevering policy,
widely, but not universally pursued, they have a race of cattle, though
possessing considerable diversity of size and color, yet coinciding in a
remarkable degree in the possession of those utilitarian features, which
so justly commend them to our admiration.
In proceeding southwestwardly through New York, New Jersey, and
elsewhere, we shall find in this branch of stock, a greater diversity
and less uniform excellence; though they have extensive numbers of
valuable animals. Here and there will be found a choice collection of
some favorite foreign breed, which emigrants have brought from their
native home, as did the Pagan colonists their penates or household gods;
the cherished associates of early days, and the only relics of their
father-land. Such are an occasional small herd of polled or hornless
cattle, originally derived from Suffolk or Galloway, excellent both for
the dairy and shambles; the Kyloe, or West Highland, (Scottish,) a hardy
animal, unrivalled for beef; the Welsh runt; the Irish cattle; the
crumpled-horn Alderney, and some others.
The Devon
Is among the oldest distinctly cultivated breeds in this country, as it
undoubtedly is of England, and probably it is the most universal
favorite. This popularity is well deserved, and it is based upon several
substantial considerations. They are beautifully formed, possessing
excessive fineness and symmetry of frame, yet with sufficient bone and
muscle to render them perfectly hardy; and they are among the most
vigorous and active of working cattle. They have great uniformity of
appearance in every feature, size, shape, horns, and color. The cows and
bulls appear small, but the ox is much larger; and both he and the dam,
on cutting up, are found to weigh much beyond the estimates which an eye
accustomed only to ordinary breeds, would have assigned to them. The
flesh is finely marbled or interspersed with alternate fat and lean, and
is of superior quality and flavor.
The cows invariably yield milk of great richness, and when appropriately
bred, none surpass them for the quantity of butter and cheese it yields.
Mr. Bloomfield, the manager of the late Lord Leicester's estate at
Holkham, has, by careful attention, somewhat increased the size, without
impairing the beauty of their form, and so successful has he been in
developing their milking properties, that his average product of butter
from each cow, is 4 lbs. per week for the whole year. He has challenged
England to milk an equal number of cows of any breed, against 40 pure
Devons, to be selected out of his own herd, without as yet having found
a competitor. Although this is not a test of their merits, and by no
means decides their superiority, yet it shows the great confidence
reposed in them by their owner. The Devon ox, under six years old, has
come up to a nett dead weight of 1,593 lbs.; and at three years and
seven months, to 1,316 lbs., with 160 lbs. of rough tallow.
_Description._ The Devon is of medium size, and so symmetrical, as to
appear small. The color is invariably a deep mahogany red, with usually
a white udder and strip under the belly; and the tuft at the end of the
tail is red while they are calves, but white in the older animal. The
head is small, broad in the forehead, and somewhat indented. The muzzle
is delicate, and both the nose and the rings around the eye, in the pure
breed, are invariably of a bright, clear orange. The cheeks and face are
thin and fleshless; the horns clear, smooth, and of a yellowish white,
handsomely curved upward. The neck is small and delicate at its junction
with the head, but is well expanded in its attachment to the breast and
shoulders. The last has the true slant for activity and strength, in
which it excels all other breeds of equal weight. The barrel is round
and deep, with a projecting brisket. The back is broad and level; the
flank full; hips wide; the rumps long; the quarters well developed, and
capable of holding a great quantity of the most valuable meat. The tail
is on a level with the back, and gracefully tapers like a drum-stick, to
the tuft on the end. The legs are of peculiar delicacy and fineness, yet
possess great strength. The skin is of medium thickness, of a rich
orange hue, pliable to the touch, and covered with a thick coating of
fine, soft, curly hair. The Devon is intelligent, gentle, and tractable;
is good for milk, and unsurpassed for the yoke and for fattening. No
animal is better suited to our scanty or luxuriant hill pastures than
the Devon, and none make a better return for the attention and food
received. They ensure a rapid improvement when mixed with other cattle,
imparting their color and characteristics in an eminent degree. Several
importations have been made into this country within the last 30 years,
of the choicest animals, and though not yet numerous in the United
States, we possess some of the best specimens that exist.
The Short Horns, or Durhams.
Are decidedly the most showy among the cattle species. They are of all
colors between a full, deep red, and a pure creamy white; but generally
have both intermixed in larger or smaller patches, or intimately blended
in a beautiful roan. Black, brown, or brindled, are colors not
recognised among pure-bred Short Horns. Their form is well-spread,
symmetrical, and imposing, and capable of sustaining a large weight of
valuable carcass. The horn was originally branching and turned upward,
but now frequently has a downward tendency, with the tips pointing
towards each other. They are light, and comparatively short; clear,
highly polished, and waxy. The head is finely formed, with a longer
face but not so fine a muzzle as the Devon. The neck is delicately
formed without dewlap, the brisket projecting; and the great depth and
width of the chest giving short, well-spread fore-legs. The crops are
good; back and loin broad and flat; ribs projecting; deep flank and
twist; tail well set up, strong at the roots and tapering. They have a
thick covering of soft hair, and are mellow to the touch, technically
termed, _handling well_. They mature early and rapidly for the quantity
of food consumed, yielding largely of good beef with little offal. As a
breed, they are excellent milkers; though some families of the Short
Horns surpass others in this quality. They are inferior to the Devons,
in their value as working oxen, and in the richness of their milk.
[Illustration: A Short-Horn Bull.]
The Short Horns are assigned a high antiquity, by the oldest breeders in
the counties of Durham and Yorkshire, England, the place of their
origin, and for a long time, of their almost exclusive breeding. From
the marked and decided improvement which they stamp upon other animals,
they are evidently an ancient breed, though much the juniors of the
Devon and Hereford. Their highly artificial style, form, and character,
are unquestionably the work of deeply studied and long-continued art;
and to the same degree that they have been moulded in unresisting
compliance with the dictation of their intelligent breeders, have they
departed from that light and more agile form of the Devon, which
conclusively and beyond the possibility of contradiction, marks the more
primitive race.
THE IMPORTATION OF SHORT HORNS INTO THIS COUNTRY.
This is claimed to have been previous to 1783. They are the reputed
ancestors of many choice animals existing in Virginia, in the latter
part of the last century, and which were known as the _milk breed_; and
some of these, with others termed the _beef breed_, were taken into
Kentucky by Mr. Patton, as early as 1797, and their descendants, a
valuable race of animals, were much disseminated in the West, and known
as the _Patton stock_.
The first authentic importations we have recorded, are those of Mr.
Heaton, into Westchester, N. Y., in 1791 and '96, from the valuable
herds of Messrs. Culley and Colling, which consisted of several choice
bulls and cows. These were for many years bred pure, and their progeny
was widely scattered. (_American Herd Book._) They were also imparted
into New York, by Mr. Cox, in 1816; by Mr. Bullock, in 1822; by the late
Hon. S. Van Rensselaer in 1823; and immediately after, by Mr. Charles
Henry Hall, of Harlem. Some small importations were made into
Massachusetts between 1817 and '25, by several enterprising
agriculturists, Messrs. Coolidge, Williams, and others; into Connecticut
by Mr. Hall and others; into Pennsylvania by Mr. Powell; and into Ohio
and some other states, by various individuals early in the present
century.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.
Short-Horned Cow.]
Since the first importations, larger accessions from the best English
herds have been frequently made; and with the nice regard for pedigrees
which the introduction of the herd book, and careful purity in breeding
has produced, the Short Horns have become the most extensive pure-bred
family of cattle in the United States.
During the speculative times of 1835 to 1840, they brought high prices,
frequently from $500 to $1000, and sometimes more. The following years
of financial embarrassment, reduced their market price below their
intrinsic value; but the tide is again turning, and they are now in
demand, but still at prices far below their utility and merits. They
have from the first, been favorites in the rich, corn valleys of the
West, their early maturity and great weight giving them a preference
over any other breed. The only drawback to this partiality, is their
inability, from their form and weight, to reach remote eastern markets
in good condition; an objection now in a great measure remedied, by the
recent remission of duties on foreign beef in the English market, which
makes them of nearly equal value where fed, to pack for exportation. On
light lands and scanty pastures, they will probably never be largely
introduced. All heavy animals require full forage within a limited
compass, so as to fill their stomachs at once, and quietly compose
themselves to their digestion.
The weights reached by the Short Horns in England, as given by Mr.
Berry, have been enormous. Two oxen, six years old, weighed nett, 1820
lbs. each. A heifer of three years, and fed on grass and hay alone,
weighed 1260 lbs. A four-year-old steer, fed on hay and turnips only,
dressed 1890 lbs. A cow reached the prodigious weight of 1778 lbs. A
heifer, running with her dam, and on pasture alone, weighed at seven
months, 476 lbs. An ox, seven years old, weighed 2362 lbs. From their
comparatively small numbers in this country, most of them have been
retained for breeders; few, as yet, have been fattened, and such only as
were decidedly inferior. Such animals as have been extensively produced
by crossing this breed upon our former stocks, have given evidence of
great and decided improvement; and the Short Horns, and their grade
descendants are destined, at no distant day, to occupy a large portion
of the richest feeding grounds in the United States.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.
Hereford Cow]
Herefords.
This is the only remaining pure breed, which has hitherto occupied the
attention of graziers in this country. Like the Devons, they are
supposed to be one of the most ancient races of British cattle. Marshall
gives the following description. "The countenance pleasant, cheerful,
open; the forehead broad; eye full and lively; horns bright, taper, and
spreading; head small; chap lean; neck long and tapering; chest deep;
bosom broad, and projecting forward; shoulder-bone thin, flat, no way
protuberant in bone (?) but full and mellow in flesh; chest full; loin
broad; hips standing wide, and level with the chine; quarters long, and
wide at the neck; rump even with the level of the back, and not
drooping, nor standing high and sharp above the quarters; tail slender
and neatly haired; barrel round and roomy; the carcass throughout deep
and well spread; ribs broad, standing flat and close on the outer
surface, forming a smooth, even barrel, the hindmost large and full of
length; round-bone small, snug, and not prominent; thigh clean, and
regularly tapering; legs upright and short; bone below the knee and hock
small; feet of middle size; flank large: flesh everywhere mellow,
soft, and yielding pleasantly to the touch, especially on the chine, the
shoulder, and the ribs; hide mellow, supple, of a middle thickness, and
loose on the neck and huckle; coat neatly haired, bright and silky;
color, a middle red, with a bald face characteristic of the true
Herefordshire breed."
[Illustration: Fig. 4.
Hereford Bull.]
Youatt further describes them as follows: "They are usually of a darker
red; some of them are brown, and even yellow, and a few are brindled;
but they are principally distinguished by their white faces, throats,
and bellies. In a few the white extends to the shoulders. The old
Herefords were brown or red-brown, with not a spot of white about them.
It is only within the last fifty or sixty years that it has been the
fashion to breed for white faces. Whatever may be thought of the change
of color, the present breed is certainly far superior to the old one.
The hide is considerably thicker than that of the Devon, and the beasts
are more hardy. Compared with the Devons, they are shorter in the leg,
and also in the carcass; higher, and broader, and heavier in the chine;
rounder and wider across the hips, and better covered with fat; the
thigh fuller and more muscular, and the shoulders larger and coarser.
They are not now much used for husbandry, although their form adapts
them for the heavier work; and they have all the honesty and docility of
the Devon ox, and greater strength, if not his activity. The
Herefordshire ox fattens speedily at a very early age, and it is
therefore more advantageous to the farmer, and perhaps to the country,
that he should go to market at three years old, than be kept longer as a
beast of draught.
They are not as good milkers as the Devons. This is so generally
acknowledged, that while there are many dairies of Devon cows in various
parts of the country, a dairy of Herefords is rarely to be found. To
compensate for this, they are even more kindly feeders than the Devons.
Their beef may be objected to by some as being occasionally a little too
large in the bone, and the fore-quarters being coarse and heavy; but the
meat of the best pieces is often very fine-grained and beautifully
marbled. There are few cattle more prized in the market than the genuine
Herefords."
There have been several importations of the Herefords into the United
States, which by crossing with our native cattle, have done great good;
but with the exception of a few fine animals at the South, we are not
aware of their being kept in a state of purity, till the importation of
the splendid herd. within the last six years, by Messrs. Corning and
Sotham of Albany, N. Y. These Herefords are among the very best which
England can produce, and come up fully to the description of the
choicest of the breed. Mr. Sotham, after an experience of several years,
is satisfied with the cows for the dairy; and he has given very
favorable published statements of the results of their milking
qualities, from which it may be properly inferred, that Youatt drew his
estimates from some herds which were quite indifferent in this property.
They are peculiarly the grazier's animal, as they improve rapidly and
mature early on medium feed. They are excelled for the yoke, if at all,
only by the Devons, which, in some features, they strongly resemble.
Both are probably divergent branches of the same original stock.
The Ayrshire
Is a breed that has been much sought after of late years, from their
reputation for fine dairy qualities. The milk is good both in quantity
and quality, yielding, according to a recent statement of Mr. Tennant,
of Scotland, who owns a large herd, fifteen quarts per day during the
best of the season, twelve of which made a pound of butter. The product
of the latter averages about 170 pounds per annum to each cow. Another
authority says, on the best low-land pasture, a good cow yields nearly
4000 quarts per year. This is a large quantity, and implies good cows
and extra feed.
Mr. Cushing, of Massachusetts, who imported several select animals,
without regard to their cost, informed us, after three or four years'
trial, that he did not perceive any superiority in them, over the good
native cows of that state, for dairy purposes. A large number have been
imported in detached parcels, and scattered through the country. They
are good animals, but seem to combine no valuable properties in a higher
degree than are to be found in our own good cattle, and especially such
as are produced from a cross of the Short Horn bull of a good milking
family, on our native cows. They are evidently a recent breed, and do
not therefore possess that uniformity of appearance and quality, which
attaches to one of long cultivation.
Mr. Aiton, of Scotland, gives the following account of them. "The dairy
breed of Scotland have been formed chiefly by skilful management, within
the last 50 years; and they are still improving and extending to other
countries. Till after 1770, the cows in Cunningham were small, ill-fed,
ill-shaped, and gave but little milk. Some cows of a larger breed and of
a brown and white color, were about that time brought to Ayrshire from
Teeswater, and from Holland, by some of the patriotic noblemen of
Ayrshire; and these being put on good pasture, yielded more milk than
the native breed, and their calves were much sought after by the
farmers."
We may fairly infer from the foregoing, which is deemed indisputable
authority; from the locality of their origin, in the neighborhood of the
Short Horns; and from their general resemblance, both externally and in
their general characteristics to the grade animals, that they owe their
principal excellence to this long-established breed.
MANAGEMENT OF CALVES.
The safest and least troublesome manner of raising calves, is at the
udder of the dam; and whenever the milk is converted into butter and
cheese, we believe this to be the most economical. The milk of one good
cow is sufficient, with a run of fresh, sweet pasture, to the feeding of
two calves at the same time; and if we allow the calves to arrive at
three or four months of age before weaning, we may safely estimate, that
one good cow will yield a quantity of milk in one season, fully
equivalent to bringing up four calves to a weaning age.
By keeping the calf on the fresh milk, whether he take it directly from
the udder, or warm from the pail, all risk of disordered bowels is
avoided. The milk is precisely adapted to the perfect health and thrift
of the young, and whenever we substitute for it any other food, we must
watch carefully that not the slightest mismanagement produces disorder,
lest more is lost by disease or want of improvement, than is gained by
the milk of which they are robbed.
The first milk of the cow after calving, is slightly purgative, which is
essential to cleanse the stomach of the calf. It is, moreover, perfectly
worthless for two or three days, for any other purpose except for swine.
The calf will seldom take all the milk at first, and whatever is left in
the bag should be thoroughly removed by the hand. If the calf is
destined for the butcher, he must have all the milk he wants for at
least six weeks, and eight or ten is better; and if the cow does not
furnish enough, he ought to be fed gruel or linseed tea. He must be
closely confined in a snug, but clean and airy stable, and the darker
this is, and the more quiet he is kept, the more readily he will fatten.
If designed to be reared, the safest and least troublesome method, is to
keep the calf on new milk. If saving the milk be an object, it is still
doubtful whether it is not better that he should have a part of it fresh
from the cow, and depend for his remaining food on a good grass or
clover pasture, meal, or roots.
Some farmers never allow the calf to approach the dam, but take it when
first dropped, and put a handful of salt in its mouth, which is daily
repeated till he is put to grass. This has a purgative effect, similar
to the first milk. Flaxseed is then prepared, by boiling a pint in four
to six quarts of water, and diluted with hay tea till it is rather
thicker than milk, and fed at blood heat.
_Hay tea_ is made, by boiling a pound of sweet, well-cured clover, in
one and a half gallons of clean water.
As the calf becomes older, oat, barley, rye, or Indian meal may be
scalded and added to the flaxseed.
When the skim-milk is of little consequence, a better way is to withdraw
him from the cow after three or four days, then scald the milk, adding a
little oat meal, and cool to the natural temperature of the milk, and
feed it. Oats, either crushed or ground, is the best and safest grain
for all young stock. The milk should not stand more than half a day
before feeding to young calves. As they advance in age, it may be fed
rather older, but should never be allowed to become sour; nor should it
ever be fed cold. Connected with this feed, should be a good range of
short, sweet pasture, and shelter against both sun and storms. If
expedient, at about 10 weeks old, he may be safely weaned, but four
months' nursing is better for the calf.
If allowed too much milk for several months, it is injurious to the
future development of the young. It does not distend the stomach
properly, nor call into use its ruminating habits. Calves thus brought
up, have often proved light-bellied, indifferent feeders, and decidedly
inferior animals. When the calf is removed from the cow, they should be
effectually separated from sight and hearing, as recognition creates
uneasiness, and is an impediment to thrift in both.
If there be any deficiency of suitable pasture for the calf, a small
rack and trough should be placed under the shed in his range, and fine
hay put in the former, and wheat bran or oat meal with a little salt in
the latter.
Diseases and Remedies.
For _disordered bowels_, mix 2 dr. rhubarb, 2 oz. castor oil, and 1/2 dr.
ginger, with a little warm milk or gruel; or give 2 oz. castor oil
alone; or 3 oz. of Epsom salts.
For _scours_ and _diarrh[oe]a_, a homely remedy is, to administer half a
pint of cider, with an equal quantity of blood drawn from the calf's
neck.
Or, add a little rennet to its food.
A good remedy is, 1 oz. powdered canella bark; 1 oz. laudanum; 4 oz.
prepared chalk; and one pint water. Mix together, and give a wine-glass
full or more, according to the size of the calf, three times a day.
_Costiveness_ is removed by giving pork broth.
Or, give 3 to 4 oz. Epsom salts, dissolved in 3 pints of water, injected
into the stomach; and repeat part of this dose every 3 or 4 hours, till
the desired effect is produced.
Calves, like all young stock, should be allowed to change their feed
gradually, from new milk to skimmed, or from the latter to other food.
Their stomachs are delicate, and need gentle, moderate changes, when
necessary to make them at all. Much depends on the care and attention
they receive. It is well to have a little resin within its reach.
A comfortable shelter, with a dry, warm bed, suitable food, regularly
given three times a day, at blood heat, and keeping the stomach in
proper order, will do much to bring them forward rapidly, and with a
small expenditure of food.
The calf requires to be supplied through the winter with an abundance of
fine, sweet hay and roots, the latter either chopped or mashed by a
roller, with the addition of a trifle of meal or oats, and a full supply
of salt and pure water.
When there are larger animals on the premises, the calves ought to be
kept by themselves. They should be sustained on their winter feed
through the following spring, until the grass furnishes a good bite on a
well-compacted sod. The change from hay to grass must be gradual, unless
the latter is considerably matured. The extreme relaxation of the bowels
from the sudden change, frequently produces excessive purging. A slight
and temporary relax from the early spring grass, is not objectionable.
Breeding.
The young animals should never be put to breeding under 15 months old,
so as to bring their first calf at two years old nor then, unless they
have large size and good feed. Much depends on the progress towards
maturity, and the supply of food in selecting the proper time for
breeding. Some are as ready for this at a year and a half as others are
at three. Early breeding gives delicacy and symmetry to the form of the
heifer, but it checks its growth; and when it is found to put her back
too much, she may be allowed to rest for a few months, or even a year,
to brings her up to the desired standard. These remarks apply
principally to choice breeders, or as they are sometimes termed, _fancy
stock_. For ordinary milch cows which have been moderately fed, three
years is a proper age to come in, after which they must be milked as
regularly, and as late before drying as possible.
Breaking Steers
Should be commenced when two or three years old. Some begin with the
calf, accustoming him to a light yoke and occasional training. This
practice will do as a pastime for trustworthy boys, as it makes them
gentle and manageable afterwards, but is hardly worth a man's time. If
always carefully handled when young, they will be found tractable.
They should at first be placed behind a pair of well-broke cattle, nor
should they be put to hard labor until quite grown, strong, and
perfectly accustomed to the yoke. If properly managed, cattle may be
trained with all the docility, intelligence, and much of the activity of
the horse. That they are not, is more frequently the fault of their
masters.
Management of Oxen.
To procure perfect working cattle, it is necessary to begin with the
proper breed. Many parts of the country furnish such as are well suited
to this purpose. A strong dash of Devon or Hereford blood is desirable,
when it needs to be improved. A well-formed, compact, muscular body;
clean, sinewy limbs; strong, dense bones; large, well-formed joints,
with a mild expressive eye, are essential for good working oxen.
After breaking, they must be led along gently, and taught before they
are required to perform their task; and never put to a load which they
cannot readily move, nor dulled by prolonging exertion beyond that
period when it becomes irksome. A generous diet is necessary, to keep up
the spirit and ability of cattle, when there is hard work to be done.
The horse and mule are fed with their daily rations of grain when at
hard service, and if the spirit of the ox is to be maintained, he
should be equally well fed, when as fully employed. Great and permanent
injury is the result of niggardly feeding and severe toil, exacted from
the uncomplaining animal. His strength declines, his spirit flags, and
if this treatment be continued, he rapidly becomes the stupid, moping
brute, which is shown off in degrading contrast with the more spirited
horse, that performs, it may be, one half the labor, on twice his
rations.
The ox should be as little abused by threats and whipping, as by stinted
feed and overtasked labor. Loud and repeated hallooing, or the severe
use of the lash, is as impolitic as it is cruel and disgraceful. We
never witness this barbarity without wishing the brutes could change
places, long enough at least to teach the biped that humanity by his own
sufferings which his reason and sensibility have failed to inspire.
Clear and intelligible, yet low and gentle words are all that are
necessary to guide the well-trained, spirited ox. The stick, or whip, is
needed rather to indicate the precise movement desired, than as a
stimulant or means of punishment. The ox understands a moderate tone
more perfectly than a boisterous one, for all sounds become indistinct
as they increase.
It is of great advantage to have oxen well trained to _backing_. They
may soon be taught, by beginning with an empty cart on a descent; then
on a level; then with an increasing load, or uphill, till the cattle
will back nearly the same load they will draw.
Some oxen have a bad trick of _hauling_ or _crowding_. Changing to
opposite sides, longer or shorter yokes, and more than all, gentle
treatment, are the only remedies, and those not unfrequently fail.
Cattle will seldom contract this habit, in the hands of a judicious,
careful driver. _The yokes_ should be carefully made, and set easy, and
the bows fitted to the necks and properly attached to the yoke. Cattle
are liable to sore necks if used in a storm; and when subject to this
exposure, they must be well rubbed with grease, where the yoke chafes
them, and respite from work should be allowed till the necks heal.
Management of Bulls or Vicious Animals.
If inclined to be vicious, the bulls should have rings thrust through
the cartilage of their nose when young. They are to be found at the
agricultural warehouses; and are made of round iron, three-eighths of an
inch diameter, with a joint in one side to open, and when thrust through
the nose, are fastened in a moment, by a rivet previously prepared.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.
Cattle-Handler.]
Fig. 5 is a _cattle-handler_, consisting of a bar of iron A, eight
inches long, with a ring for a man's hand, which turns on a swivel at B,
and at the other end is a pair of calliper-shaped legs, one stationary,
and the other opening on a joint. The fixed leg is inserted against one
side of the nostril, and the other is pressed upon the opposite side,
and there fastened by a slide, C, when the animal is firmly held for
administering medicine or performing any operation.
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Fig. 7.
For taming savage Animals.]
Figs. 6 and 7, for _taming a bull_; b, in Fig. 6, is a cap screwed on to
the tip of the horn; a c, an iron rod hanging on a pivot in the cap,
with a chain reaching to the ring in the nose. The effect of his
attempting to hook, is illustrated by the various positions of the chain
in Fig. 7. If the rod at a, is pushed in either direction, it jerks up
the nose in a manner that cures him of his inclination.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.
Cattle-Tie.]
Fig. 8, shows a _cattle-tie_.--This is a much more convenient and
comfortable mode of fastening cattle in the stable, than the common
stanchions.
The proper time for turning off Cattle.
This must depend on their previous feeding and management, the breed,
and the purposes required. The improved breeds and many of their
crosses, will mature for the butcher as fully at three or four, as
inferior cattle at five to seven years old. If pushed rapidly with
proper food, they will of course be _ripe_ much sooner than if stinted.
When cattle have to be purchased for work, or cows for the dairy, it
becomes an object to keep them as long as they can be made profitable,
and yet be turned off for fattening at a fair price. We have seen active
and spirited oxen in the yoke at 16 or 17; but they seldom do as well
after 12 or even 10 years. Old cattle are liable to more diseases than
young; are less hardy; and they recover more slowly when exposed to
scanty feed or hard usage. They also fatten with more difficulty, and
their meat is inferior. When they can be sold advantageously to the
feeder, and replaced without inconvenience, it is found to be most
profitable to turn them off at seven or eight years. They will by that
time have attained full maturity; they will feed rapidly, and make the
largest amount of good beef. If there are extraordinary milkers among
the cows, or superior workers among the oxen, it is better to keep them
as long as they maintain their full vigor.
Fattening Cattle.
Such as are designed for the shambles the ensuing fall or winter, may be
allowed to do their spring's labor; or if cows, they may be milked into
summer after calving, or go farrow during the previous year. They should
early be put on the best summer feed, and it is better to be
occasionally changed, to give variety and freshness, and keep the animal
in good appetite. Let the fattening animals have the best, and after
they have cropped it a while, give them a fresh field; and the other
animals or sheep can follow and clear off the remaining herbage,
preparatory to shutting it up for a new growth. Some prefer an extensive
range of rich feed, which is unchanged throughout the season; and when
it is not necessary to divide the pasture with the other animals, this
is a good practice.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
[Illustration: Fig. 10.]
[Illustration: Fig. 11.]
Three cuts of improved forms, Nos. 9, 10, and 11. The above cuts
illustrate the forms which the most improved beef-cattle should possess.
The selection of Animals for Stall Fattening.
This is a nice point, and none without a practised eye and touch, can
choose such as will make the best return for the food consumed. The
characteristics of choice animals, heretofore enumerated, are
particularly essential in those intended for profitable fattening. But
the most important of all, is that firm mellowness, and quick elasticity
of touch, which unerringly mark the kindly feeder and profitable
bullock. When other means for ascertaining fail, it is a safe rule to
select the best-conditioned animals, out of a herd of grass-fed; for if
all were of equal flesh and health, when turned out, those which have
thriven most on their summer pasture, will generally fatten quickest on
their fall and winter keep. Only the best should be selected. The
remainder, after consuming the coarser forage, may be at once disposed
of for early use. From repeated trials, it is found that the carcass of
stall-fed animals will barely return the value of the materials
consumed, and their manure is generally the only compensation for the
time and attention bestowed. None but choice, thrifty beasts will pay
for their food and attention, and all others will make their best
returns, by an immediate disposal, after the surplus fodder is gone.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.
Points of Cattle Illustrated.
EXPLANATION.--A, forehead; B, face; C, cheek; D, muzzle; E, neck; F,
neck vein; G, shoulder point; H, arm; I, shank; J, gambril, or hock; K,
elbow; L, brisket, bosom, or breast; M, shoulder; N, crops; O, loin; P,
hip, hucks, hocks, or huckles; Q, crupper bone, or sacrum; R, rump, or
pin-bone; S, round bone, thurl, or whirl; T, buttock; U, thigh, or
gaskit; V, flank; W, plates; X, back, or chine; Y, throat; Z, chest.]
Stall-Feeding.
This ought to be commenced early in the season. An ox may be fed in a
box-stall, or if accustomed to a mate, they do better by tying together
with sufficient room, yet not so near as to allow of injuring each
other. The building should be warm, but not hot; well ventilated, yet
having no current of cold air passing through; and as dark as possible.
The stall ought to be kept clean and dry, and a deep bed of clean straw
is of decided advantage.
The ox should be first fed the inferior and most perishable roots with
his grain and dry forage, and his food should be gradually increased in
richness, as he advances towards maturity. The food and water should be
given three times a day, from thoroughly cleaned mangers or troughs. The
animal likes a change of food, in which he should be indulged as often
as may be necessary. If he refuses his food, a temporary privation, or
variety is essential. When the food is changed, he should be moderately
fed at first, till he becomes accustomed to it, as there is otherwise
danger of cloying, which is always injurious. The moment the animal has
done feeding, the remainder of the food ought to be at once removed. He
then lies down, and if undisturbed, rests quietly till the proper hour
induces him again to look for his accustomed rations. Regularity in the
time of feeding, is of the utmost consequence. An animal soon becomes
habituated to a certain hour, and if it be delayed beyond this, he is
restless and impatient, which are serious obstacles to speedy fattening.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.
Ox cut up.
Fig. 13--Shows the London method of cutting up the carcass--Fig. 1, is
the loin; 2, rump; 3, aitch or adz-bone; 4, buttock; 5, hock; 6, thick
flank; 7, thin flank; 8, fore-rib; 9, middle rib; 10, cuck-rib; 11,
brisket; 12, leg of mutton piece; 13, clod or neck; 14, brisket.]
[Illustration: Fig. 14.
Skeleton of an Ox.
1. Temporal bone.--2. Frontal bone, or bone of the forehead.--3. Orbit
of the eye.--4. Lachrymal bone.--5. Malar, or cheek bone.--6. Upper jaw
bone.--7. Nasal bone, or bone of the nose.--8. Nippers, found on the
lower jaw alone.--9. Eight true ribs.--10. Humerus, or lower bone of the
shoulder.--11. Sternum.--12. Ulna, its upper part forming the
elbow.--13. Ulna.--14. Radius, or principal bone of the arm.--15. Small
bones of the knee.--16. Large metacarpal, or shank bone.--17.
Bifurcation at the pasterns, and the two larger pasterns to each
foot.--18. Sesamoid bones.--19. Bifurcation of the pasterns.--20. Lower
jaw and the grinders.--21. Vertebrae, or bones of the neck.--22.
Navicular bones.--23. Two coffin bones to each foot.--24. Two smaller
pasterns to each foot.--25. Smaller or splint-bone.--26. False ribs,
with their cartilages.--27. Patella, or bone of the knee.--28. Small
bones of the hock.--29. Metatarsals, or larger bones of the hind
leg.--30. Pasterns and feet.--31. Small bones of the hock.--32. Point of
the hock.--33. Tibia, or proper leg-bone.--34. Thigh-bone.--35. Bones of
the tail.--36, 37. Haunch and pelvis.--38. Sacrum.--39. Bones of the
loins.--40. Bones of the back--41. Ligament of the neck and its
attachments.--42. Scapula, or shoulder-blade.--43. Bones of the
back.--44. Ligament of the neck.--45. Dentata.--46. Atlas.--47.
Occipital bone, deeply depressed below the crest or ridge of the
head--48. Parietal bone, low in the temporal fossa.--49. Horns, being
processes or continuations of the frontal bone.]
DISEASES IN CATTLE.
Hoven, or Swelling of the Paunch,
Is a temporary ailment, caused by eating too freely of fresh and
generally wet clover, or other succulent food. The animal gorges the
first stomach with so much food, that its contents cannot be expelled.
Inflammation of the membrane takes place, and decomposition of the food
soon follows. This is known by the distension of the paunch, and
difficulty of breathing, and unless speedily relieved, suffocation and
death will ensue. Both sheep and cattle are subject to it.
_Remedies._[1]--In its early stages, when not too severe, it has been
removed by administering some one of the following remedies.
A pint of gin poured down the throat.
From one to two pints of lamp or other oil.
Strong brine.
New milk with one-fifth its bulk of tar mixed.
An egg-shell full of tar forced down the throat, followed by a second,
if the first fails.
A tablespoonful of volatile spirit of ammonia, diluted with water.
A wine-glass full of powder, mixed with cold lard and forced in balls
into the stomach.
A teaspoonful of unslaked lime dissolved in a pint of warm water, shaken
and given immediately.
A pint of tolerably strong lye.
[1] Besides his own experience, the writer has drawn from the N. E.
Farmer, the Albany Cultivator, the American Agriculturist, and other
reliable American and English works, some of the remedies for diseases
herein mentioned.
The Proper Mode of giving the above Remedies
Is for a person to hold the horn and cartilage of the nose, while
another seizes and draws out the tongue as far as possible, when the
medicine is thrust below the root of the tongue. If liquid, it must be
inserted by the use of a bottle.
_The probang_ is used when the former remedies are ineffectual. This
consists of a tarred rope, or a flexible whip-stalk, three-fourths of an
inch in diameter, with a swab or bulbous end. Two persons hold the head
of the animal, so as to keep the mouth in a line with the throat, while
a third forces it into the stomach, when the gas finds a passage out. A
stiff leather tube with a lead nozzle pierced with holes, is best for
insertion, through which the gas will readily escape.
Some one of the above purgatives should be given after the bloat has
subsided, and careful feeding for some days must be observed.
Light gruels are best for allaying inflammation, and restoring the tone
of the stomach.
When no other means are available, the paunch may be tapped with a sharp
penknife, plunging it 11/2 inches forward of the hip bone, towards the
last rib in the left side. If the hole fills up, put in a large
goose-quill tube, which to prevent slipping into the wound, may remain
attached to the feather, and the air can escape through a large hole in
the upper end.
_Prevention_ is vastly better than cure, and may be always secured, by
not allowing hungry cattle to fill themselves with clover, roots,
apples, &c. When first put upon such feed, it should be when the dew and
rain are off, and their stomachs are already partially filled; and they
should then be withdrawn before they have gorged themselves.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
[Illustration: Fig. 16.
The Stomach Pump.]
This is a convenient instrument for extracting poisonous substances from
the stomach. It is also highly useful for administering medicines and
injections, and if fitted with several tubes, one may suffice for
animals of any size. It consists of a syringe, _a_, with a side opening
at _b_, and another at the bottom _d_, as shown in Fig. 16. For
injections, Fig. 15 is used, and the end of the syringe is placed in a
vessel containing the fluid, when a probang or injection-tube is screwed
on to the side opening at _b_, through which the fluid is forced into
the stomach or rectum, as may be required. The probang should be a tube
of thick but elastic leather, and it may be passed into the mouth,
through an aperture in a block, placed on edge between the teeth, which
is easily done while a person holds the head of the animal firmly.
Choking
Is frequently relieved by some of the following expedients.
The use of the probang or whip-stock, mentioned under the head of
_remedies for Hoven_, by which the root is forced into the stomach.
A soft root may be crushed so as to allow of swallowing, by holding a
smooth block against it, and striking with a mallet on the opposite
side.
If within arms-length, the root may be removed by hand.
It is said this can be done, by tying up the fore-leg with a small cord,
close to the body, and giving the animal a sudden start with a whip; or
by jerking the fore-leg out forward.
Or pour down the throat a pint bottle full of soft soap, mixed with
sufficient hot water to make it run freely.
_Prevention_ consists in cutting the roots; not feeding them when the
animals are very hungry, and not disturbing them while eating.
Inflammation of the Stomach.
This is frequently produced by a sudden change from dry to green food,
and some other causes.
Epsom salts, castor oil, sulphur, and carbonate of soda, in sufficient
quantity to purge freely, are good remedies.
It may be prevented by changing the food gradually.
Mange, or Scab.
This is denoted by the animal rubbing the hair off about the eyes and
other parts. The skin is scaly or scabby, sometimes appearing like a
large seed-wart.
_Remedies._--Rub the spots with sulphur and lard, after scraping and
washing with soap.
When the skin is cracked, take sulphur, 1 lb.; turpentine, 1/4 lb.;
unguentum, (or mercurial ointment,) 2 ounces; linseed oil, 1 pint. Melt
the turpentine and warm the oil, and when partly cooled, stir in the
sulphur; when cold, add the unguentum, mixing all well. Rub this
thoroughly with the hand on the parts affected.
We have no doubt this, like scab in sheep and itch in the human species,
will be found, on close investigation, to be caused by minute insects
located in the skin. Salt and water ought, in that case, to be a good
remedy.
Hollow Horn, or Horn Ail.
This is not unfrequently _hollow stomach_, and very often follows
stinted fare, hard usage, and exposure to cold. We have noticed this as
most prevalent among oxen that have done a severe winter's work.
_Symptoms._--Bloody urine; swollen udder; shaking the head; eyes and
head swollen; standing with the head against a fence or barn; eyes dull
and sunken, and horns cold.
_Remedies._--Bleed and physic, shelter and feed properly.
Take a half pint of good vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of salt, one
teaspoonful of pepper, and mix and pour into each ear, holding the head
on one side for two minutes.
Bore with a large gimlet on the under side of the horn, three or four
inches from the head; and if hollow, bore nearer the head and let out
all the matter, and syringe two or three times a day with salt and
water, or soap-suds, or salt and vinegar.
Spirits of turpentine rubbed in around the base of the horns, will
arrest the disease in its incipient stages.
Pour a spoonful of boiling hot brimstone into the cavity between the
horns.
Pour a teakettle of boiling water on the horns, holding so as to prevent
injury to the other parts.
Soot and pepper given internally are good.
Jaundice, or Yellows.
This is owing to gall-stones or calculi, which occasionally accumulate
in large numbers, and is sometimes owing to increased or altered quality
of the bile. It is manifested by the yellowness of the eye and skin, and
high color of the urine, and poor appetite.
_Remedies._--Bleed, and purge with Epsom salts.
If taken in season, 2 ounces of ground mustard may be mixed with a
liquid, and given twice a day.
Green food is a good preventive.
Mad Itch.
This disease exists in some of the Western states, and shows itself by
jerking of the head, and itching around the nose and base of the horns.
They will lick their sides and backs, and jerk and hiccup till they fill
themselves with wind; afterwards they froth at the mouth, and in 24
hours die raving mad.
_Remedy._--Give as much soot and salt as the animal will eat; soon
after, give 3/4 or 1 lb. of brimstone or sulphur; and 8 hours after, as
many salts.
Bloody Murrain, or Red Water.
This disease first shows itself in a cough, then heaving of the flanks,
with bloody, black, and f[oe]tid evacuations, tenderness over the loins,
and coldness of the horns. Tumors and biles sometimes appear. The animal
holds down the head, moans, is restless, and staggers when walking.
_Causes._--We have lost several animals by this fatal disease, and are
not aware of having cured any when severely attacked. In repeated
instances, we have seen large flukes taken out of the liver, strongly
resembling the common leech, which abounds in many of our swampy lands.
It is certain that on new, low swamps and clay lands, cattle are most
liable to it; and when they have been subject to repeated attacks in
such localities, clearing and draining have checked it.
Youatt attributes it to certain kinds of forage, which are peculiar to
the above situations. We are rather inclined to ascribe it to exposure,
to excessive dampness, and especially to miasma; for although the brute
creation are perhaps less sensitive to these influences than man, yet,
as they are governed by the same unvarying laws of nature, when
subjected to conditions totally unsuited to their economy, they must
suffer equally in kind, though probably not in degree, with the more
refined human frame. But it is evident the disease, its causes, and
remedies, are as yet imperfectly understood.
_Remedies._--However intelligent men may differ as to its causes, all
agree that the animal should first be bled, and then thoroughly purged.
In obstinate cases, this last is a difficult matter. We have given
repeated doses of powerful cathartics without producing any effect; and
whenever the medicine is inoperative, death speedily follows.
Large doses of common salt, or Epsom salts dissolved in water, are good
purgatives, and if the animal neglects drinking after taking them, he
should be drenched with copious draughts of water. These should be
repeated every few hours, if ineffectual.
Injections are sometimes useful, when medicine fails to act. These may
be made of soap and water; or take 2 or 3 gills of oats boiled, 3
drachms saltpetre, 11/2 oz. linseed oil, mix and use them when warm.
The opening of the bowels may be followed with a pint of linseed oil, as
an additional and gentle laxative.
When the animal begins to recover, gentle astringents and tonics may be
given.
_Preventives._--We have more confidence in preventives than in remedies.
Good keep, shelter, dryness, and clean pastures, will generally prevent
attack. The cattle should at all times be supplied with two or three
troughs under cover, on the sides and bottoms of which tar should be
plentifully spread. Let equal portions of salt and slaked lime be in
one; salt and wood ashes in another; and salt and brimstone in a third.
Many farmers have entirely avoided this disease while using one or more
of these, when they annually lost many by it previously.
Hoof Ail
Is indicated by lameness, fever, and a soft swelling just above the
hoof.
_Remedies._--Carefully wash the foot in warm soap-suds, and while still
damp, apply between the claws on the affected part from one to three
grains of corrosive sublimate. If it does not fully adhere, it must be
mixed with hog's lard, but it should be so applied as to be out of the
reach of the animal's tongue, as it is a powerful poison, and the
extreme irritability of the feet will induce him to lick them.
The claw is efficiently cleansed, by drawing a cord briskly through it,
when either of the above applications, or blue vitriol put on two or
three times a day, or spirits of turpentine, will effect a cure.
It is sometimes cured by putting the animals in the stanchions, and
applying a sharp chisel three-fourths of an inch from the toe, and
striking it with a mallet till it is cut off. If it does not bleed
freely, cut off shavings till it does. If the animal is refractory, let
a person hold up the opposite foot. Keep them in the stable two or three
days, and out of the mud for a week.
Loss of Cud
Is loss of appetite, prostration, and general ill-health.
_Remedies._--Give a warm bran mash, with good hay, and warm water with
salt.
An aloe tincture, made with brandy and ginger, is good.
Afterwards give good, dry, nourishing food; and bitter infusions,
chamomile flowers, hoarhound, oak bark, &c., in beer.
Scours, or Diarrh[oe]a.
A common remedy, is to boil the bark of white oak, white pine, and
beech, and give a strong infusion in bran. If they refuse to eat it,
pour it down. The oak is astringent, and the pine and beech soothing and
healing.
Warbles
Are grubs, the egg of which is deposited in the back of cattle by the
gad-fly, (_[OE]strus bovis._) They are discernible by a protuberance or
swelling on the back. They may be pressed out by the thumb and finger;
or burnt out by plunging a hot wire in them; or a few applications of
strong brine will remove them.
Wounds
In cattle are readily healed, when the animal's blood is in good order,
by applying a salve made of 1 oz. green copperas; 2 oz. white vitriol; 2
oz. salt; 2 oz. linseed oil; 8 oz. molasses. Boil over a slow fire 15
minutes in a pint of urine, and when almost cold, add 1 oz. oil of
vitriol, and 4 oz. spirits turpentine. Apply it with a feather to the
wound, and cure soon follows.
Milk, or Puerperal Fever,
Is a common disease with cows in high condition, at the time of calving.
It may, in almost every case, be avoided, by keeping them in moderate
feed and flesh.
_Remedies._--Bleed freely, say 6 to 10 quarts, according to the
circulation of the blood; then give 1 to 11/2 lbs. of Epsom salts,
according to the size of the beast, to be repeated in half lb. doses
every six hours, till she purges freely.
Injections should always be given when purgatives are tardy in their
operation.
Caked Bag
May be removed by simmering the bark of the root of bitter-sweet in
lard, till it becomes very yellow. When cool, apply it to the swollen
udder once in 8 or 10 hours; or wash it several times a day in cold
water.
A pint of horseradish, fed once a day, cut up with potatoes or meal, is
useful for the same purpose.
This is also a tonic, helps the appetite, and is good for oxen subject
to heat.
Garget
Is a more intense degree of inflammation than exists in caked bag and
sore, swollen teats, and shows itself in hard bunches on the udder.
The cow should be bled, and take a large dose of physic; then wash the
udder as in caked bag.
Repeated doses of sulphur is a good remedy.
Garget, or scoke root, given of the size of a large finger, grated and
fed in their food, is a general application with farmers. The garget
plant grows from three to six feet high, with a purple stalk, and
strings of berries hanging down between the branches.
Sore Teats
May be healed by rubbing with goose oil, cream, new milk; or make the
same applications for it as for caked bag. The bag and teats should be
well cleansed with warm soft water, if to be followed by any ointment.
The following application is recommended by Youatt: One ounce of yellow
wax and three of lard; melt together, and when cooling, rub in one
quarter ounce of sugar of lead, and a drachm of alum finely powdered.
Warts
Are of two kinds; the first, on the outer skin, may be removed by
rubbing with camphorated olive oil. The others penetrate into the flesh,
and may be removed by a ligature of fine twine, or silk, or india-rubber
drawn into a string, and tied tightly around the wart, which falls off
in a few days.
_Remedies._--Nitrate of silver, (lunar caustic,) applied to the wart,
will remove it, but it produces a sore.
Apply a strong wash of alum.
Rub with the juice of milk-weed.
Poultice with grated carrot.
Cut off the wart with sharp scissors, when the cow is dry. It will bleed
little, and soon heal.
Sore Necks on Working Oxen.
These occur when worked in wet weather, or with bad yokes. The _remedy_
is, rub with a healing application. The _preventive_ is, good yokes; the
application of grease; or a decoction of white or yellow oak bark
applied to the affected parts. Or, a better preventive is a canvass or
leather cap to protect the neck entirely from the storm.
The Bite of Poisonous Snakes
May be cured by shaking together equal parts of olive oil and hartshorn,
and rubbing the wound and adjacent parts three or four times a day. For
a full-grown animal, one quart of olive oil and an ounce of hartshorn
should be administered internally, in addition to the above.
For Stings of Bees, Hornets, &c.
Apply warm vinegar and salt, rubbing the parts thoroughly.
For a Forming Tumor.
Rub thoroughly with strong brine, or a solution of sal ammoniac
dissolved in eight times its weight of water. If the tumor comes to a
head, open it near the bottom with a lancet; or place a seton in it so
as to admit the escape of purulent matter.
Lice and Vermin
Sometimes abound on cattle during the latter part of winter and spring.
These are generally the result of _mange_, which is itself the effect of
ill-feeding and ill-condition. They are removed with the cause. We doubt
if they can be permanently kept off, where the animal is losing flesh
and health.
_Remedies._--Restore the health and condition, and sprinkle sand, ashes,
or dirt plentifully around the roots of the horns, and along the ridge
of the neck and back.
A liberal application of train or other oil has nearly a similar effect.
Never apply an ointment containing corrosive sublimate or other poison,
as it may be licked by the animal or its fellows, who may thus become
seriously poisoned.
The Trembles,
Producing _milk sickness_ (a most fatal disease) in the human family,
from eating the milk or flesh of animals affected by it. This disease,
which exists principally in the region of the Wabash River, is supposed
by Dr. Drake to be owing to the _poison oak_, (Rhus Toxicodendron,) or
_poison vine_, (Radicans,) which the animals eat.
_Symptoms._--The animal mopes, is feverish and costive, but apparently
preserves its appetite. The next stage of the disease is faintness and
vertigo, which is shown when the animal is put upon exertion, being
followed by excessive _trembling_ and entire prostration.
_Remedy._--Almost every cathartic has been tried in vain. Indian corn,
both dry and green, has been fed to all animals accustomed to eating it,
and when they can be induced to feed upon it freely, purging is
generally secured. Rest of the animal is absolutely essential while the
disease continues, and is itself an effectual remedy in mild cases.
* * * * *
Besides the diseases enumerated, there are occasional epidemics, such as
_black tongue_, _black foot_, or _foot root_, _&c._, which carry off
great numbers of animals. Remedies for these are frequently not
discovered, and the epidemic is allowed to run its course unchecked. The
only preventives are such care, food, and management as the experienced
herdsman knows to be best suited to the maintenance of the health and
thrift of his stock.
_Note._--Some ailments will be found under the head of _diseases_ of the
other animals mentioned in this work, the general resemblance of which
to each other will justify nearly a similar treatment.
If intelligent _farriers_ are at hand, they may sometimes be called in
with advantage; though we acknowledge our distrust of the quackery of
most of those passing under this title. There is little science or
intelligent study in the composition of this class, the world over; and
much of their practice is the merest empiricism. The owner should see to
it, if he employs one of whose attainments he is doubtful, that neither
medicines nor operations be used, unnecessarily severe or hazardous to
the animal. Especially, should the diabolical practice be interdicted,
of the abundant and indiscriminate use of poisons, boiling oils,
turpentine, and tar, and the hot iron applied to the sensitive wound or
naked flesh. If certain or effectual remedies for the removal of disease
cannot he applied, such as augment the suffering or endanger the life of
the poor dumb things, may at least be avoided.
CHAPTER III.
THE DAIRY.
Cows for the Dairy.
From what has been said on the various characteristics of the different
breeds of cattle, it must be evident, that no very definite criteria of
excellence can be given for all good dairy cows. But there are certain
points in a good milker, that can hardly be mistaken.
She should be descended from the best milking stock; her head should be
small or of medium size, muzzle fine, and nostrils flexible and
expanded; face long, slender, and dishing; cheeks thin; eyes full, mild,
and prominent; horns delicate and waxy, and they may be either
branching, lopped, crumpled, or hornless; long, thin, lively ear, and
the inside of an orange color; neck thin and small at its junction with
the head; deep chest, but not too heavy before; back level and broad;
well ribbed; belly large; low flank; wide thighs, but thin; short legs,
and standing well apart; large milking veins; loose, capacious udder,
coming well out behind; good teats; loose, mellow skin, of a deep
yellow; and a fine, thick coat of glossy hair; and she must be of a good
disposition, and free from tricks.
Yet, with all the skill of a well-practised taste in the selection of
animals, the dairyman will frequently find his theories and results at
sad variance. One may sometimes select a fine animal, with every
appearance of good milking qualities, which is but a medium cow at the
pail; and another, that hardly seems worthy of notice, and which sets at
defiance many established milking points, and all preconceived notions
of symmetry, may yet prove a good milker. A cow that runs to flesh while
in milk, is generally an indifferent animal for the dairy. Perfection
in a cow, consists in converting all she eats into milk while yielding
it, and when dry, in turning all she consumes into valuable meat.
Management of Dairy Cows.
A cow may have her first calf when between two and three years of age,
according to her size and development. After calving, she should be
stinted in her food for two or three days, and not fed freely for a
week. Avoid fat in a breeding cow. Too high feeding is the cause of
milk-fever, caked bag, garget, and a host of evils; and very poor feed
is almost equally objectionable.
The average time of a cow with young, is from 40 to 41 weeks; but they
sometimes go only 34, and occasionally overrun 44.
A dry, unoccupied stall or yard is best for her to calve in; and if
there is any serious delay or difficulty in the operation, she may be
assisted by placing the f[oe]tus in the right position, and gently
pulling it, with every throe of the dam. After the calf has drawn all he
wants at morning and evening, the bag should be thoroughly and quickly
emptied of all the milk. If strong and vigorous, the calf is the best
doctor for garget or caked bag. He may be allowed to suck the cow or
not, at the option of the owner; there are reasons for and against the
practice, as will be seen under the head of rearing calves, and each
person must determine in his own case on which side the balance lies.
Milking.
This is an important operation, and on its proper performance depends
much of the success of the dairyman. A cow regularly, gently, yet
quickly and thoroughly milked, will give much more than if neglected. If
a herd of cows be separated into two divisions, each yielding the same
quantity of milk, and one is given to a good milker, and the other to a
shiftless or lazy one, the latter will speedily reduce his milk much
below the quantity obtained by the former; and if the milkers then
exchange cows, they will be found to change quantity too, those before
affording the least, soon giving the most. An indifferent milker ought
never to be tolerated in a herd, good ones are cheaper at double the
price. It is best to milk at intervals of about 12 hours; which may be
done when pastures are convenient, or cows are soiled or fed in the
yard. But as this is not often the case in the season of green food,
they should be milked early in the morning and turned into pasture, to
fill themselves before the sun is oppressive; and if they are to be kept
up at night, let them browse in the pasture as long as possible, before
they are brought to the yard.
MILK
Is produced from the females of all the warm-blooded animals, which are
enumerated among the mammaliae. The milk of several animals is employed
for domestic purposes, among different nations. That of the camel is
used by the Arabs; the milk of the ass by the Spaniards, the Maltese,
and the inhabitants of the Levant; that of the mare by the Cossacks, the
Kirgheez, and other Tartars; and that of the goat, the ewe, and the cow,
by most of the ancient, and with few exceptions, by every modern
European nation. Within the last century, however, the use of all
excepting cow's milk has been almost entirely discarded, among the most
highly civilized people.
If we except some few Welsh and Swiss, or other emigrants, who resort to
the goat and ewe for their dairy materials, for the first few years of
their residence here, the cow is the only animal which is employed in
America for producing milk. For this, she is pre-eminently fitted, and
the modern improvement of this invaluable animal has carried her product
of milk almost as far as can be reasonably looked for from a given
amount of food; and although this is of about the average richness of
the goat and ewe, and before that of the ass, the quantity she yields is
frequently as 60 to 1, in favor of the cow, over the first two
competitors. As a milk-giving animal, the cow is the best fitted for the
purposes of civilized man; and she is made to contribute, not only to
his health, his comfort, and his economy, but to many of his choicest
luxuries. Milk contains every element of nutrition necessary to animal
existence; and man can subsist, with unimpaired health and strength, if
limited to this food alone.
The Constituents of Milk
Are butter, which varies from 2 to 6 per cent.; casein or cheese,
usually 4 to 5, but sometimes varying from 3 to 15 per cent.; (the last
excessive quantity, yielded only by the first milk after calving;)
milk-sugar, 4 to 6; salts or saline matter, 0.2 to 0.6; and water, 80 to
89.
_There is much diversity in the product and quality of milk_ from cows
of the same breed, the same food, and other circumstances and
conditions, apparently equal. Thus, of a herd of 22, chiefly Ayrshire,
one gave 84 quarts in one week, which afforded 31/2 lbs. of butter; two
others in the same time gave 86, yielding 51/2 lbs.; and a fourth gave 88
quarts, making 7 lbs.
The amount of butter, however, which a given quantity of milk will
produce, is not the only criterion of the value of the milk, except for
this purpose alone. Some cows will yield more butter, others will
produce more cheese; while for consumption, another may partially
compensate, in the increased quantity of milk-sugar, and the saline
matters, for a deficiency of both the other ingredients. But for dairy
purposes, butter and cheese are the only measure of the value of milk;
and a cow is esteemed good or indifferent, as she gives one or the other
in the greatest abundance.
Circumstances which modify the Quantity and Character of Milk.
Besides the accidental variation in the quantity and quality of milk in
different animals, before adverted to, there are many reliable causes
which influence both. Of these, parentage has a most decided and uniform
influence, frequently modified, however, in the particular individual,
by some personal and controlling causes. But a cow, whose maternal
ancestry on both sides are choice milkers, is almost certain to resemble
them.
Food influences the quantity, rather than the quality. Boussingault
tried numerous experiments, with cows fed on various kinds of food, and
found the difference hardly appreciable in the quality of milk. Its true
benefit is to be looked for in the increased quantity, through which,
the valuable ingredients are distributed in nearly the same proportion,
as when the product is materially lessened. By quality we mean to be
understood, the amount of the ingredients, _valuable for nutrition
only_; for it is certain, that there is a rich aromatic flavor, not only
in milk, but in butter and cheese, which is afforded in various articles
of food, and especially by the fresh green herbage which abounds in the
pastures from spring to autumn.
Activity or rest has a great effect on both quantity and quality. The
less action, and the more quiet and rest, the greater the amount of milk
and butter. But exercise is absolutely essential to the production of
cheese. Butter may be made from cows confined in a stable, but cheese
can only be profitably made from animals at pasture. It is supposed by
physiologists, that the exercise in gathering their food, rather than
any peculiarity in its character, is necessary to convert the
nitrogenized tissues into the nitrogenized principle of caseum or
cheese.
The time from calving, has also its effect. The first milk drawn from a
cow after calving, has been found to yield over 15 per cent. of casein,
while in its ordinary state it gives only three to five and a half. As
the quantity of milk diminishes in a farrow cow, the quality improves
within certain limits. Pregnancy affects the quality injuriously, and
especially towards its latter stages; and a cow that is predisposed to
giving milk, should be dried off a few weeks before its expiration, as
it is then unfit for use.
Fat cows give poorer milk than such as are moderately lean; and young
animals do not come up to the maximum of their quality, till after their
third or fourth calving.
The milk first drawn from the udder, will yield only an eighth, and
sometimes even a much less proportion of cream, than the strippings; and
the milk which is drawn three times a day, is greatly inferior to such
as is taken but once, though the latter is less abundant.
Excitement, or fretfulness; change of locality, or to a different herd,
with new companions; separation from her calf; periodical heat;
annoyance from flies, or worry from dogs; exposure to storms, severe
cold, or an oppressive sun, and many similar causes, diminish the
quantity of milk and butter; but some of these may reasonably be
expected to increase the proportion of its casein.
Dr. Playfair found that the quantity of butter in the evening milk,
after the cow had been at pasture all day, was 3.7 per cent., while the
casein was 5.4; after lying quietly all night, the milk from the same
cow, on the following morning, contained 5.6 per cent. of butter, and
only 3.9 of casein. In stabling the cow, the butter was invariably in
greater proportion than when allowed to ramble in the pasture; and the
casein, with a single exception, was equally diminished.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.
Lactometer, or Cream Guage.]
Fig. 17, is a number of glass tubes of equal size, set in a frame called
a _lactometer_ or _cream guage_. If milk from different cows be set in
these, the depth of the cream will indicate their comparative richness.
Cream.
If milk be immediately set away in shallow vessels, after being taken
from the cow, the cream rises to the surface, carrying with it most of
the butter contained in the milk, and much of its casein also. Hence,
the great nutritive properties of buttermilk, which retains the casein
in very large proportions, much of it being rejected by the butter in
its separation from the cream.
A temperature below 34 deg., will prevent the cream from rising in any
considerable quantity, and preserve the milk unaltered for some weeks.
Coagulating the milk from any cause, will equally prevent the separation
of the cream. The elevation of temperature within certain limits,
hastens the separation. Thus, at 50 deg., the cream will mostly have risen
in 36 hours; at 55 deg., in 24; at 68 deg., in 18 or 20; and at 77 deg., in 10 or 12
hours.
Heating the milk near the boiling point, and then setting it away and
allowing it to remain undisturbed, will soon cause the cream to rise. In
the celebrated Orange dairy, near Baltimore, Md., this system was
practised, by which, not only most of the cream was secured for butter,
but in consequence of its rapid separation, the skimmed milk was sent to
market within a few hours after being drawn; and the scalding imparted
to it an agreeable flavor and apparent richness, which it did not really
possess.
The celebrated clouted cream of Devonshire, England, and the butter made
from it, contains an unusual quantity of casein, the consequence of
heating the milk. "It is prepared by straining the warm milk into large
shallow pans into which a little water has previously been put, allowing
these to stand from six to twelve hours, and then carefully heating them
over a slow fire, or on a hot plate, till the milk approaches the
boiling point. The milk, however, must not actually boil, nor must the
skin of the cream be broken. The dishes are now removed into the dairy,
and allowed to cool. In summer the cream should be churned on the
following day; in winter it may stand over two days. The quantity of
cream obtained is said to be one-fourth greater by this method, and the
milk which is left is proportionably poor."--[_Johnston._]
BUTTER.
Electricity
Has much to do with the changes in milk, as in all other substances.
Glass milk-pans might, therefore, be supposed to be the best vessels for
keeping the milk unchanged and sweet.
It may possibly not afford any practical result, yet intelligent
experiments for introducing a stream of electricity might well be
justified, to aid in the separation of the butteraceous particles in the
operation of churning.
Sour Cream.
Cream, for the purpose of churning, is usually allowed to become sour.
It ought to be at least one day old, but may with advantage be kept
several days in cool weather, if it be previously well freed from milk,
and be frequently stirred to keep it from curdling. This sour cream is
put into the churn, and worked in the usual way until the butter
separates. This is collected into lumps, well beat and squeezed free
from the milk, and in some dairies is washed with pure cold water as
long as the water is rendered milky. In other localities the butter is
not washed, but after being well beat, is carefully freed from the
remaining milk by repeated squeezings and dryings with a clean cloth.
Both methods, no doubt, have their advantages. In the same
circumstances, the washed butter may be more easily preserved in the
fresh state, while the unwashed butter will probably possess a higher
flavor.
Sweet Cream
May be put into the churn and the butter be obtained, but in most cases
it requires more labor and longer time, without, in the opinion of good
judges, affording in general a finer quality of butter. In all cases the
cream becomes sour during the agitation, and before the butter begins
distinctly to form.
Clouted Cream
The churning of the clouted cream of this and other countries, forms an
exception to the general rule just stated, that more time is required in
the churning of sweet creams. Clouted cream may be churned in the
morning after it is made, that is, within twenty-four hours of the time
when the milk was taken from the cow; and from such cream it is well
known that the butter separates with very great ease. But in this case,
the heating of the cream has already disposed the oily matter to cohere,
an incipient running together of the globules has probably taken place
before the cream is removed from the milk, and hence the comparative
ease with which the churning is effected. There is something peculiar in
butter prepared in this way, as it is known in other countries by the
name of Bohemian butter. It is said to be very agreeable in flavor, but
it must contain more cheesy matter than the butter from ordinary cream.
Churning the whole Milk
Is a much more laborious method, from the difficulty of keeping in
motion such large quantities of fluid. It has the advantage, however, of
giving a larger quantity of butter. At Rennes, in Brittany, the milk of
the previous evening is poured _into the churn_ along with the warm
morning's milk, and the mixture is allowed to stand for some hours, when
the whole is churned. In this way it is said that a larger quantity of
butter is obtained, and of a more delicate flavor.
In the neighborhood of Glasgow, according to Mr. Aiton, the milk is
allowed to stand six, twelve, or twenty-four hours in the dairy, till
the whole has cooled, and the cream has risen to the surface. Two or
three milkings, still sweet, are then poured together with their cream,
into a large vessel, and are left undisturbed till the whole has become
quite sour, and is completely coagulated. The proper sourness is
indicated by the formation of a stiff _brat_ upon the surface _which has
become uneven_. Great care must be taken to keep the brat and curd
unbroken until the milk is about to be churned, for if any of the whey
be separated, the air gains admission to it and to the curd, and
fermentation is induced. By this fermentation, the quality of the butter
may or may not be affected, but that of the buttermilk is almost sure to
be injured.
In Holland the practice is a little different. The cream is not allowed
to rise to the surface at all, but the milk is stirred two or three
times a day, till it gets sour, and so thick that a wooden spoon will
stand in it. It is then put into the churn, and the working, or the
separation of the butter is assisted by the addition of a quantity of
cold water. By churning the sour milk in one or other of these ways, the
butter is said to be "rich, sound, and well-flavored." If it be greater
in quantity, it is, according to Sprengel, because the fatty matter
carries with it from the milk a larger quantity of casein than it does
in most cases from the cream alone.
Sourness of the Cream.
For the production of the best butter, it is necessary that the cream
should be sufficiently sour before it is put into the churn. Butter made
from sweet cream (not clouted) is neither good in quality, nor large in
quantity, and longer time is required in churning. It is an unprofitable
method.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.]
Fig. 18 is a _Cylindrical Thermometer Churn_, of any required size, with
false metal bottom to hold cold or hot water for bringing the cream to
the proper temperature. A thermometer, permanently set in the side,
indicates the heat.
Quickness in Churning.
The more quickly milk or cream is churned, the paler, the softer, and
the less rich the butter. Cream, according to Mr. Aiton, may be safely
churned in an hour and a half, while milk ought to obtain from two to
three hours. The churning ought always to be regular, slower in warm
weather, that the butter may not be soft and white, and quicker in
winter, that the proper temperature may be kept up.
A barrel-churn, lately introduced into this country, being placed in a
trough of water of the proper temperature, readily imparts the degree of
heat required by the milk or cream without the necessity of adding warm
water to the milk, _and churns the whole in ten or twelve minutes_. It
is said also to give a larger weight of butter from the same quantity of
milk. If the quality be really as good by this quick churning, the
alleged inferiority in the quality of butter churned quickly in the
common churn cannot be due to the mere rapidity of churning alone.
Over-churning.
When the process of churning is continued after the full separation of
the butter, it loses its fine yellowish, waxy appearance, and becomes
soft and light-colored. The weight of the butter, however, is
considerably increased; and hence, in Lancashire, over-churning is
frequently practised in the manufacture of fresh butter for immediate
sale.
Temperature of the Milk or Cream.
Much also depends upon the temperature of the milk or cream when the
churning is commenced. Cream when put into the churn should never be
warmer than 55 deg. Fahrenheit It rises during the churning from 4 deg. to 10 deg.
F. above its original temperature. When the whole milk is churned, the
temperature should be raised to 65 deg. F., which is best done by pouring in
hot water into the churn _while the milk is kept in motion_. In winter,
either of these temperatures may be easily attained. In cold weather it
is often necessary to add hot water to the cream to raise it even to
55 deg.. But in summer, and especially in hot weather, it is difficult, even
in cool and well-ordered dairies, (without the use of ice,) to keep the
cream down to this comparatively low temperature. Hence, if the cream be
then churned, a second-rate butter, at best, is all that can be
obtained.
The alleged advantages of Churning the entire Milk.
The proper temperature can be readily obtained both in winter and
summer. A hundred gallons of entire milk, will give, in summer, five per
cent. more butter than the cream from the same quantity of milk. Butter
of the best quality can be obtained without difficulty, both in winter
and summer. No special attention to circumstances, or change of method,
is at any time required. The churning in winter and summer is alike
simple and easy. The butter is not only of the best quality while fresh,
but is also best for long-keeping, when properly cured or salted.
Cleanliness in all the operations of the Dairy.
This is peculiarly necessary to the manufacture of good butter. Cream is
remarkable for the rapidity with which it absorbs and becomes tainted by
any unpleasant odors. It is very necessary that the air of the dairy
should be sweet, that it should be often renewed, and that it should be
open in no direction from which bad odors can come. (_Johnston and other
authorities._)
The statement of J. T. Lansing, who received the first premium for
butter from the New York State Agricultural Society, is as follows:--
_Keep the cows stabled through the inclement season_; feed them from
three to four times per day with good hay or green stalks; when near
coming in, add some oats, barley, or corn cracked. In summer, good
pasture, with living water accessible at all times, and plenty of salt.
_Treatment of milk and cream before churning._--Strain the milk in tin
pans; place them in a cool cellar for the cream to rise. When
sufficiently risen, separate the cream from the milk; put in stone jars,
well prepared before churning.
_The mode of churning in summer._--Rinse the churn with cold water; then
turn in the cream, and add to each jar of cream put in the churn, full
one-fourth of the same quantity of cold water. The churn used is a
patent one, moved by hand with a crank, having paddles attached, and so
constructed as to warm the milk (if too cold) with hot water, without
mixing them together. The milk and cream receive the same treatment in
winter as in summer; and in churning, use hot instead of cold water, if
necessary.
_The method of freeing the butter from the milk_, is to wash the butter
with cold water, till it shows no color of the milk, by the use of a
ladle.
_Salting the butter._--Use the best kind of Liverpool sack-salt; the
quantity varies according to the state in which the butter is taken from
the churn; if soft, more; if hard, less; always taking the taste for
the surest guide. Add no saltpetre, nor other substances.
_The best time for churning_ is the morning, in hot weather, and to keep
the butter cool till put down.
_The best mode of preserving butter_, in and through the summer and
winter, is as follows:--The vessel is a stone jar, clean and sweet. The
mode of putting it down is to put in a churning of butter, and put on
strong brine; let it remain on until the next churning is ready to put
down, and so on till the jar is filled; then cover it with fine salt the
same to remain on till used.
Mr. McWilliams, of Orange county, the celebrity of whose butter is
unsurpassed, thus details his method of butter-making:
"Our practice is not to churn the milk until it becomes thick or
loppered, the milk and cream is then churned together. The temperature
of the milk is about fifty degrees. In warm weather about a quart of
cold water is put in each pan before the milk is strained, so as to keep
it sweet as long as possible. The cellar-floor is brick. This in warm
weather is daily cleansed with cold water. A drain from the cellar
carries off the water thus applied. The churn is filled about half full
with milk, with the addition of two pails of cold water before starting
the churn. In cold weather the same quantity of warm water is applied.
When the churning is finished, which usually occupies about two hours of
time, there are then two more pails of cold water applied to raise the
butter and cool it.
The butter is then taken out of the churn and put in a large tray; this
is immediately filled with cold water, and the butter carefully washed;
after which the water is thrown off. The butter now undergoes the
process of salting; it is then placed in a cool situation, where it
stands about an hour, and is worked carefully over. This finished, it is
placed in the same situation as before, where it stands three or four
hours, and is again worked over; again replaced for five or six hours,
when it is worked over for the third time. It is now replaced, where it
stands till the next morning, and worked over for the fourth time. A
small quantity of nitre is then put in the butter. Thus finished, it is
placed in firkins holding about eighty-five pounds.
Previous to packing, the firkin is scalded with hot water, rinsed and
cooled with cold water, then rubbed all around with fine salt; this
prevents the butter from adhering to the sides of the firkin. When the
firkin is full, a linen cloth is placed over the top of the butter; on
this cloth a covering of salt is put one inch deep, and cold water
enough added to it to form a brine. It then stands till it is to be sent
to market, when the cloth and salt are removed, the firkin turned down,
the top of the butter in the keg washed with cold water, and the pickle
drained off. The firkin is now neatly headed up and sent to market."
The salt added to the butter should be from 1-24th to 1-28th of its
weight, or about two-thirds of an ounce to a pound, and this must be of
the best quality. All the buttermilk must be thoroughly extracted by
repeated washings; and when completed, the butter should be immediately
packed, and not a particle of air allowed to come in contact with it
till opened for the table.
CHEESE.
The Circumstances affecting the Quality of Cheese.
"All cheese consists essentially of the curd, mixed with a certain
portion of the fatty matter, and of the sugar of milk. But differences
in the quality of the milk, in the proportion in which the several
constituents of milk are mixed together, or in the general mode of dairy
management, give rise to varieties of cheese almost without number.
Nearly every dairy district produces one or more qualities of cheese
peculiar to itself.
Natural Differences in the Milk
It is obvious that whatever gives rise to natural differences in the
quality of the milk, must affect also that of the cheese prepared from
it. If the milk be poor in butter, so must the cheese be. If the pasture
be such as to give a milk rich in cream, the cheese will partake of the
same quality. If the herbage or other food affect the taste of the milk
or cream, it will also modify the flavor of the cheese.
Milk of Different Animals.
So the milk of different animals will give cheese of unlike qualities.
The ewe-milk cheeses of Tuscany, Naples, and Languedoc, and those of
goats' milk made on Mont Dor and elsewhere, are celebrated for qualities
which are not possessed by cheeses prepared from cows' milk in a similar
way. Buffalo milk also gives a cheese of peculiar qualities, which is
manufactured in some parts of the Neapolitan territory."
Other kinds of cheese are made from mixtures of the milk of different
animals. Thus the strong-tasted cheese of Lecca and the celebrated
Roquefort cheese are prepared from mixtures of goat with ewe milk, and
the cheese of Mont Cenis from both of these mixed with the milk of the
cow.
Creamed or Uncreamed Milk.
Still further differences are produced, according to the proportion of
cream which is left in or is added to the milk. Thus, if cream only be
employed, we have the rich _cream-cheese_ which must be eaten in a
comparatively recent state. Or, if the cream of the previous night's
milking be added to the new milk of the morning, we may have such cheese
as the _Stilton_ of England, or the small, soft, and rich _Brie_
cheeses, so much esteemed in France.
If the entire milk only be used, we have such cheeses as the _Cheshire_,
the _Double Gloucester_, the _Cheddar_, the _Wiltshire_, and the
_Dunlop_ cheeses of Britain, the Kinnegad cheese of Ireland, and the
Gouda and Edam cheeses of Holland. Even here, however, it makes a
difference, whether the warm milk from the cow is curdled alone, as at
Gouda and Edam, or whether it is mixed with the milk of the evening
before, as is generally done in Cheshire and Ayrshire. Many persons are
of opinion that cream, which has once been separated, can never be so
well mixed again with the milk, that a portion of the fatty matter shall
not flow out with the whey and render the cheese less rich.
If the cream of the evening's milk be removed, and the skimmed milk
added to the new milk of the next morning, such cheeses as the _Single
Gloucester_ are obtained. If the cream be taken once from _all_ the
milk, the better kinds of skimmed-milk cheese, such as the Dutch cheese
of Leyden, are prepared; while if the milk be twice skimmed, we have the
poorer cheeses of Friesland and Groningen. If skimmed for three or four
days in succession, we get the hard and horny cheeses of Essex and
Sussex, which often require the axe to break them up.
Buttermilk Cheese.
But poor or butterless cheese will also differ in quality according to
the state of the milk from which it is extracted. If the new milk be
allowed to stand to throw up its cream, and this be then removed in the
usual way, the ordinary skimmed-milk cheese will be obtained by adding
rennet to the milk. But if, instead of skimming, we allow the milk to
stand till it begins to sour, and then remove the butter by churning the
whole, we obtain the milk in a sour state, (_buttermilk_.) From this
milk the curd separates naturally by gentle heating. But being thus
prepared from sour milk, and without the use of rennet, buttermilk
cheese differs more or less in quality from that which is made from
sweet skimmed-milk. The acid in the buttermilk, especially after it has
stood a day or two, is capable of coagulating new milk also; and thus,
by mixing more or less sweet milk with the buttermilk before it is
warmed, several other qualities of mixed butter and sweet-milk cheese
may readily be manufactured.
Whey Cheese.
The whey which separates from the curd, and especially the white whey,
which is pressed out towards the last, contains a portion of curd, and
not unfrequently a considerable quantity of butter also. When the whey
is heated, the curd and butter rise to the surface, and are readily
skimmed off. This curd alone will often yield a cheese of excellent
quality, and so rich in butter, that a very good imitation of Stilton
cheese may sometimes be made with alternate layers of new-milk curd and
this curd of whey.
Mixtures of Vegetable Substances with the Milk.
New varieties of cheese are formed by mixing vegetable substances with
the curd. A green decoction of two parts of sage leaves, one of
marigold, and a little parsley, gives its color to the _green cheese_ of
Wiltshire; some even mix up the entire leaves with the curd. The
celebrated Schabzieger cheese of Switzerland, is made by crushing the
skim-milk cheese after it is several months old to fine powder in a
mill, mixing it then with one-tenth of its weight of fine salt, and
one-twentieth of the powdered leaves of the mellilot trefoil,
(_trifolium melilotus cerulea_,) and afterwards with oil or butter,
working the whole into a paste, which is pressed and carefully dried.
Potato Cheeses,
As they are called, are made in various ways. One pound of sour milk is
mixed with five pounds of boiled potatoes and a little salt, and the
whole is beat into a pulp, which, after standing five or six days, is
worked up again, and then dried in the usual way. Others mix three parts
of dried boiled potatoes with two of fresh curd, or equal weights, or
more curd than potato, according to the quality required. Such cheeses
are made in Thuringia, in Saxony, and in other parts of Germany. In
Savoy, an excellent cheese is made by mixing one of the pulp of potatoes
with three of ewe-milk curd; and in Westphalia, a potato cheese is made
with skimmed milk.
Preparation of Rennet.
Rennet is prepared from the salted stomach or intestines of the sucking
calf, the unweaned lamb, the young kid, or even the young pig. In
general, however, the stomach of the calf is preferred, and there are
various ways of curing and preserving it.
The stomach of the newly killed animal contains a quantity of curd
derived from the milk on which it has been fed. In most districts, it is
usual to remove by a gentle washing the curd and slimy matters which are
present in the stomach, as they are supposed to impart a strong taste to
the cheese. In Cheshire, the curd is frequently salted separately for
immediate use. In Ayrshire and Limburg, on the other hand, the curd is
always left in the stomach and salted along with it. Some even give the
calf a copious draught of milk shortly before it is killed, in order
that the stomach may contain a larger quantity of the valuable curd.
Salting the Stomach.
In the mode of salting the stomach, similar differences prevail. Some
merely put a few handfuls of salt into and around it, then roll it
together, and hang it near the chimney to dry. Others salt it in a
pickle for a few days, and then hang it up to dry; while others pack
several of them in layers, with much salt both within and without, and
preserve them in a cool place, till the cheese-making season of the
following year. They are then taken out, drained from the brine, spread
upon a table, sprinkled with salt which is rolled in with a wooden
roller, and then hung up to dry. In some foreign countries, the recent
stomach is minced very fine, mixed with salt and bread into a paste, put
into a bladder, and then dried. In Lombardy, the stomach, after being
salted and dried, is minced and mixed up with salt, pepper, and a little
whey or water into a paste, which is preserved for use.
In whatever way the stomach or intestine of the calf is prepared and
preserved, the almost universal opinion seems to be, that it should be
kept for 10 or 12 months, before it is capable of yielding the best and
strongest rennet. If newer than 12 months, the rennet is thought to make
the cheese heave or swell, and become full of eyes or holes.
Making the Rennet.
In making the rennet, different customs also prevail. In some districts,
a bit of the dried stomach is put into half a pint of lukewarm water,
with as much salt as will lie upon a shilling, is allowed to stand over
night, and in the morning the infusion is poured into the milk. For a
cheese of 60 lbs. weight, a piece of the size of a dollar will often be
sufficient, though of some skins as much as 10 square inches are
required to produce the same effect. It is, however, more common to take
the entire stomach, and to pour upon them from one to three quarts of
water for each stomach, and to allow them to infuse for several days. If
only one has been infused, and the rennet is intended for immediate use,
the infusion requires only to be skimmed and strained. But if several be
infused, or as many as have been provided for the whole season, about
two quarts of water are taken for each, and, after standing not more
than two days, the infusion is poured off, and is completely saturated
with salt. During the summer it is constantly skimmed, and fresh salt
added from time to time. Or a strong brine may at once be poured upon
the skins, and the infusion, when the skins are taken out, may be kept
for a length of time. Some even recommend, that the liquid rennet should
not be used until it is at least two months old. When thus kept,
however, it is indispensable that the water should be fully saturated
with salt.
In Ayrshire, and in some other countries, it is customary to cut the
dried stomach into small pieces, and to put it, with a handful or two of
salt and one or two quarts of water, into a jar, to allow it to stand
for two or three days, afterwards to pour upon it another pint for a
couple of days, to mix the two decoctions, and when strained, to bottle
the whole for future use. In this state it may be kept for many months.
In making rennet, some use pure water only, others prefer clear whey,
others a decoction of leaves, such as those of the sweetbrier, the
dog-rose, and the bramble, or of aromatic herbs and flowers; while
others again, put in lemons, cloves, mace, or brandy. These various
practices are adopted for the purpose of making the rennet keep better,
of lessening its unpleasant smell, of preventing any unpleasant taste it
might give to the curd, or finally of directly improving the flavor of
the cheese. The acidity of the lemon will, no doubt, increase also the
coagulating power of any rennet to which it may be added.
The rennet thus prepared is poured into the milk previously raised to
the temperature of 90 deg. or 95 deg. F., and is intimately mixed with it. The
quantity which it is necessary to add varies with the quality of the
rennet, from a tablespoonful to half a pint for 30 or 40 gallons of
milk. The time necessary for the complete fixing of the curd varies also
from 15 minutes to an hour or even an hour and a half. The chief causes
of this variation, are the temperature of the milk, and the quality and
quantity of the rennet employed.
Different Qualities of Cheese.
The temperature of new or entire milk, when the rennet is added, should
be raised to about 95 deg. F.; that of skimmed milk need not be quite so
high. If the milk be warmer the curd is hard and tough, if colder, it is
soft and difficult to obtain free from the whey. When the former happens
to be the case, a portion of the first whey that separates may be taken
out into another vessel, allowed to cool, and then poured in again. If
it prove to have been too cold, hot milk or water may be added to it; or
a vessel containing hot water may be put into it before the curdling
commences; or the first portion of whey that separates may be heated and
poured again upon the curd. The quality of the cheese, however, will
always be more or less affected, when it happens to be necessary to
adopt any of these remedies. To make the best cheese, the true
temperature should always be attained as nearly as possible, before the
rennet is added.
Mode in which the Milk is warmed.
If, as is the case in some dairies, the milk be warmed in an iron pot
upon the naked fire, great care must be taken that it is not singed or
_fire-fanged_. A very slight inattention may cause this to be the case,
and the taste of the cheese is sure to be more or less affected by it.
In Cheshire, the milk is put into a large tin pail, which is plunged
into a boiler of hot water, and frequently stirred till it is raised to
the proper temperature. In large dairy establishments, however, the
safest method is to have a pot with a double bottom, consisting of one
pot within another, after the manner of a glue-pot; the space between
the two being filled with water. The fire applied beneath, thus acts
only upon the water, and can never, by any ordinary neglect, do injury
to the milk. It is desirable in this heating, not to raise the
temperature higher than is necessary, as a great heat is apt to give an
oiliness to the fatty matter of the milk.
The time during which the Curd stands.
This is also of importance. It should be broken up as soon as the milk
is fully coagulated. The longer it stands after this, the harder and
tougher it will become.
The quality of the Rennet.
This is of much importance, not only in regard to the certainty of the
coagulation, but also to the flavor of the cheese. In some parts of
Cheshire, it is usual to take a piece of the dried membrane and steep it
overnight with a little salt for the ensuing morning's milk. It is thus
sure to be fresh and sweet, if the dried _maw_ be in good preservation.
But where it is customary to steep several skins at a time, and to
bottle the rennet for after-use, it is very necessary to saturate the
solution completely with salt, and to season it with spices, in order
that it may be preserved in a sweet and wholesome state.
The quantity of Rennet added.
This ought to be regulated as carefully as the temperature of the milk.
Too much renders the curd tough; too little causes the loss of much
time, and may permit a larger portion of the butter to separate itself
from the curd. It is to be expected also, that when rennet is used in
great excess, a portion of it will remain in the curd, and will
naturally affect the kind and rapidity of the changes it afterwards
undergoes. Thus, it is said to cause the cheese to heave or swell out
from fermentation. It is probable, also, that it will affect the flavor
which the cheese acquires by keeping. Thus it may be, that the agreeable
or unpleasant taste of the cheeses of certain districts or dairies may
be less due to the quality of the pastures or of the milk itself, than
to the quantity of rennet with which it has there been customary to
coagulate the milk.
The way in which the Rennet is made.
This, no less than its state of preservation and the quantity employed,
may also influence the flavor or other qualities of the cheese. For
instance, in the manufacture of a celebrated French cheese, that of
Epoisse, the rennet is prepared as follows:--Four fresh calf-skins, with
the curd they contain, are well washed in water, chopped into small
pieces, and digested in a mixture of 5 quarts of brandy with 15 of
water, adding at the same time 21/2 lbs. of salt, half an ounce of black
pepper, and a quarter of an ounce each of cloves and fennel seeds. At
the end of six weeks, the liquor is filtered and preserved in
well-corked bottles, while the membrane is put into salt-water to form a
new portion of rennet. For making rich cheeses, the rennet should always
be filtered clear.
On Mont d'Or, the rennet is made with white wine and vinegar. An ounce
of common salt is dissolved in a mixture of half a pint of vinegar with
21/2 pints of white wine, and in this solution a prepared goat's stomach
or _a piece of dried pig's bladder_ is steeped for a length of time. A
single spoonful of this rennet is said to be sufficient for 45 or 50
quarts of milk. No doubt the acid of the vinegar and of the wine aid the
coagulating power derived from the membrane.
The way in which the Curd is treated.
It is usual in our best cheese districts, carefully and slowly to
separate the curd from the whey, not to hasten the separation, lest a
larger portion of the fatty matter should be squeezed out of the curd,
and the cheese should thus be rendered poorer than usual. But in some
places, the practice prevails of washing the curd with hot water, after
the whey has been partially separated from it. Thus at Gouda in Holland,
after the greater part of the whey has been gradually removed, a
quantity of hot water is added, and allowed to remain upon it for at
least a quarter of an hour. The heat makes the cheese more solid and
causes it to keep better.
In Italy, the pear-shaped _caccio-cavallo_ cheeses and the round
_palloni_ cheeses of Gravina, in the Neapolitan territory, are made from
curd, which after being scalded with boiling whey, is cut into slices,
kneaded in boiling water, worked with the hand till it is perfectly
tenacious and elastic, and then made into shapes. The water in which the
curd is washed, after standing twenty-four hours, throws up much oily
matter, which is skimmed off and made into butter.
The Separation of the Whey
Is a part of the process, upon which the quality of the cheese in a
considerable degree depends. In Cheshire, more time and attention is
devoted to the perfect extraction of the whey than in almost any other
district. Indeed, when it is considered that the whey contains sugar and
lactic acid, which may undergo decomposition, and a quantity of rennet
which may bring on fermentation, by both of which processes the flavor
of the cheeses must be considerably affected, it will appear of great
importance that the whey should be as completely removed from the curd
as it can possibly be. To aid in effecting this, a curd-mill, for
chopping it fine after the whey is _strained_ off, is in use in many of
the large English dairies, and a very ingenious and effectual pneumatic
cheese-press for sucking out the whey, was lately invented.
But the way in which the whey is separated is not a matter of
indifference, and has much influence upon the quality of the cheese.
Thus, in Norfolk, according to Marshall, when the curd is fairly set,
the dairy-maid bares her arm, plunges it into the curd, and with the
help of her wooden ladle, breaks up minutely, and intimately mixes the
curd with the whey. This she does for ten or fifteen minutes, after
which the curd is allowed to subside, and the whey is drawn off. By this
agitation, the whey must carry off more of the butter and the cheese
must be poorer.
In Cheshire and Ayrshire, the curd is cut with a knife, but is gently
used and slowly pressed till it is dry enough to be chopped fine, and
thus more of the oily matter is retained. On the same principle, in
making the Stilton cheese, the curd is not cut or broken at all, but is
pressed gently and with care till the whey gradually drains out. Thus
the butter and the curd remain intermixed, and the rich cheese of
Stilton is the result. Thus, while it is of importance that all the whey
should be extracted from the curd, yet the quickest way may not be the
best. More time and care must be bestowed in order to effect this
object, the richer the cheese we wish to obtain.
The quality of the milk or of the pastures, may often be blamed for the
deficiencies in the richness or other qualities of cheese, which are in
reality due to slight but material differences in the mode of
manufacturing it.
_The kind of salt_ used, is considered by many to have some effect upon
the taste of the cheese. Thus the cheese of Gerome, in the Vosges, is
supposed to derive a peculiar taste from the Lorena salt with which it
is cured. In Holland, the efficacy of one kind of salt over another for
the curing of cheese is generally acknowledged.
The Mode in which the Salt is applied.
In making the large Cheshire cheeses, the dried curd, for a single
cheese of sixty pounds, is broken down fine and divided into three equal
portions. One of these is mingled with double the quantity of salt added
to the others, and this is so put into the cheese-vat as to form the
central part of the cheese. By this precaution, the after-salting on the
surface is sure to penetrate deep enough to cure effectually the less
salted parts.
In the counties of Gloucester and Somerset the curd is pressed without
salt, and the cheese, when formed, is made to absorb the whole of the
salt afterwards through its surface. This is found to answer well with
the small and thin cheeses made in those counties, but were it adopted
for the large cheeses of Cheshire and Dunlop, or even for the pine-apple
cheeses of Wiltshire, there can be no doubt that their quality would
frequently be injured. It may not be impossible to cause salt to
penetrate into the very heart of a large cheese, but it cannot be easy
in this way to salt the whole cheese equally, while the care and
attention required must be greatly increased.
Addition of Cream or Butter to the Curd.
Another mode of improving the quality of cheese, is by the addition of
cream or butter to the dried and crumbled curd. Much diligence, however,
is required fully to incorporate these, so that the cheese may be
uniform throughout. Still this practice gives a peculiar character to
the cheeses of certain districts. In Italy, they make a cheese _after
the manner of the English_, into which a considerable quantity of butter
is worked; and the _Reckem_ cheese of Belgium is made by adding half an
ounce of butter and the yolk of an _egg_, to every pound of pressed
curd.
Size of the Cheese.
From the same milk, it is obvious that cheeses of different sizes, if
treated in the same way, will, at the end of a given number of months,
possess qualities in a considerable degree different. Hence, without
supposing any inferiority, either in the milk or in the general mode of
treatment, the size usually adopted for the cheeses of a particular
district or dairy, may be the cause of a recognised inferiority in some
quality, which it is desirable that they should possess in a high
degree.
The Method of Curing.
This has very much influence upon the quality of the cheese. The care
with which they are salted, the warmth of the place in which they are
kept during the first two or three weeks, the temperature and closeness
of the cheese-room in which they are afterwards preserved, the frequency
of turning, of cleaning from mould, and rubbing with butter; all these
circumstances exercise a remarkable influence upon the after-qualities
of the cheese. Indeed, in very many instances, the high reputation of a
particular dairy district or dairy farm, is derived from some special
attention to some or to all of these apparently minor points.
In Tuscany, the cheeses, after being hung up for some time at a proper
distance from the fire, are put to ripen in an underground, cool, and
damp cellar; and the celebrated French cheeses of Roquefort, are
supposed to owe much of the peculiar estimation in which they are held,
to the cool and uniform temperature of the subterranean caverns in which
the inhabitants of the village have long been accustomed to preserve
them.
Ammoniacal Cheese.
The influence of the mode of curing, is shown very strikingly in the
small ammoniacal cheeses of Brie, which are very much esteemed in Paris.
They are soft unpressed cheeses, which are allowed to ripen in a room,
the temperature of which is kept between 60 deg. and 70 deg. Fahrenheit, till
they begin to undergo the putrefactive fermentation, and emit an
ammoniacal odor. They are generally unctuous, and sometimes so small as
not to weigh more than an ounce.
Inoculating Cheese.
It is said that a cheese, possessed of no very striking taste of its
own, may be inoculated with any flavor we approve, by putting into it
with a scoop a small portion of the cheese which we are desirous that
it should be made to resemble. Of course, this can apply only to cheeses
otherwise of equal richness, for we could scarcely expect to give a
Gloucester the flavor of a Stilton, by merely patting into it a small
portion of a rich and esteemed Stilton cheese. [_Johnston and various
other authorities._]
[Illustration: Fig. 19.
Cheese-Press.]
Fig. 19 is a _self-acting cheese-press_, light yet strong. The cheese
itself gives a pressure of twelve times its own weight; and if this is
insufficient, additional weight may be added as required.
The following statements were made by those receiving premiums from the
New York State Agricultural Society:
"Number of cows kept, eleven. Cheese made from two milkings, in the
English manner; no addition made of cream. For a cheese of twenty
pounds, a piece of rennet about two inches square is soaked about twelve
hours in one pint of water. As rennets differ much in quality, enough
should be used to coagulate the milk _sufficiently_ in about forty
minutes. No salt is put _into_ the cheese, nor any on the outside during
the first six or eight hours it is pressed; but a thin coat of fine
Liverpool salt is kept on the outside during the remainder of the time
it remains in press. The cheeses are pressed forty-eight hours, under a
weight of seven or eight cwt. Nothing more is required but to turn the
cheeses once a day on the shelves."
"The milk is strained in large tubs over night; the cream stirred in
milk, and in the morning strained in same tub; milk heated to natural
heat; add color and rennet; curd broke fine and whey off, and broke fine
in hoop with fast bottom, and put in strainer; pressed twelve hours;
then taken from hoop, and salt rubbed on the surface; then put in hoop,
without strainer, and pressed forty-eight hours; then put on tables, and
salt rubbed on surface, and remain in salt six days, for cheese weighing
thirty pounds. The hoops to have holes in the bottom; the crushings are
saved, and set, and churned, to grease the cheese. The above method is
for making one cheese per day. As in butter-making, the utmost
cleanliness is required in every part of the cheese-making premises."
CHAPTER IV.
SHEEP
With the exception of the dog, there is no one of the brute creation
which exhibits the diversity of size, color, form, covering, and general
appearance, which characterizes the sheep, and none which occupies a
wider range of climate, or subsists on a greater variety of food. In
every latitude between the equator and the arctic, he ranges over the
sterile mountains, and through the fertile valleys. He feeds on almost
every species of edible forage, the cultivated grasses, clovers, cereals
and roots; he browses on aromatic and bitter herbs; he crops the leaves
and bark from the stunted forest shrubs, and the pungent, resinous
evergreens. In some parts of Norway and Sweden, when other resources
fail, he subsists on fish or flesh during their long and rigorous
winters, and if reduced to necessity, he eats his own wool.
He is diminutive like the Orkney, or massive like the Teeswater. He is
policerate or many horned; he has two large or small spiral horns like
the Merino, or is polled or hornless like the mutton sheep. He has a
long tail like our own breeds; a broad tail, like many of the eastern;
or a mere button of a tail, like the fat-rumps, discernible only by the
touch. His coat is sometimes long and coarse, like the Lincolnshire;
short and hairy, like those of Madagascar; soft and furry, like the
Angola; or fine and spiral, like the silken Saxon. His color, either
pure or fancifully mixed, varies from the white or black of our own
country, to every shade of brown, dun, buff, blue, and gray, like the
spotted flocks of the Cape of Good Hope and other parts of Africa and
Asia. This wide diversity is the result of long domestication, under
almost every conceivable variety of condition.
Uses.
Among the antediluvians, sheep were immolated for sacrificial offerings,
and their fleeces probably furnished them with clothing. Since the
deluge, their flesh has with all nations been used as a favorite food
for man. By many of the rude, roving nations of the East, they are
employed in carrying burdens.
Their milk is generally used by the uncivilized, and to some extent by
the refined nations of Europe, not only as a beverage, but for making
into cheese, butter, and curds. Job refers to its use, as do Isaiah and
other of the Old Testament writers. Most of the Greek and Roman authors
describe its general use and manufacture. The ewe's milk scarcely
differs in appearance from that of the cow, but is generally thicker,
and yields a pale, yellowish butter, that is always soft and soon
becomes rancid. Culley remarks, "the cheese from their milk is
exceedingly pungent, and for that reason is preferred by many to that
from the cow." In Wales, the milk is mixed with that of the dairy, and
makes a tart, palatable cheese. We have never seen it appropriated for
dairy purposes in the United States, except by a few Welsh and Highland
emigrants. The sheep is frequently employed in the dairy regions of this
country, at the tread-mill or horizontal wheel, to pump the water, churn
the milk, or perform other light domestic work.
The dignity and importance of the shepherd's vocation have ever been
conspicuous. Abel, the supposed twin-brother of the first-born of the
human race, was a "keeper of sheep;" and from this, it may be fairly
inferred, that there is no animal which has so long been under the
immediate control of man. Abraham and his descendants, as well as most
of the ancient patriarchs, were shepherds. Job had 14,000 sheep. It is
said of Rachel, the favored mother of the Jewish race, "she came with
her father's sheep, for she kept them." The seven daughters of the
priest of Midian, "came and drew water for their father's flocks."
Moses, the statesman and lawgiver, who "was learned in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians, kept the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law;" and David,
the future monarch of Israel, the hero, poet, and divine, was a keeper
of sheep. It was to shepherds, while "abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flocks by night," that the birth of the Saviour was
announced. The root of the Hebrew name for sheep, signifies
fruitfulness, abundance, plenty; as indicating the blessings they were
destined to confer on the human race. With the sacred writers, they were
the chosen symbol of purity and the gentler virtues; they were the
victims of propitiatory sacrifices; and finally, they became the type of
redemption to fallen man. These may not be considered accidental
allusions in a book, whose every feature is full of design.
Nor has the sheep been less the subject of eulogy and attention with
profane writers. Among these, Homer and Hesiod, Virgil and Theocritus,
introduced them with evident delight in their pastoral themes; while
their heroes and demigods, Hercules and Ulysses, AEneas and Numa,
carefully perpetuated them throughout their regal domains.
In modern times, they have commanded the attention of the most
enlightened nations; and their prosperity has in no instance been
independent of those useful animals, wherever wool and its manufactures
have been regarded as essential staples. Spain and Portugal, for more
than two centuries, were the most enterprising nations of Europe, and
during that period, they excelled in the production and manufacture of
wool. Flanders, for a time, was before England in the perfection of the
arts and the enjoyments of life, and _England then sent the little wool
she raised to that country to be manufactured_. Her politic sovereigns
soon found this a losing game, and offered large bounties for the
importation of artists and machinery. By a systematic and thorough
course of legislation, which looked to the utmost protection and
augmentation of wool and woollens, she has carried their production
beyond any thing the world has ever seen. The small islands of Great
Britain and Ireland, in addition to the support of their 26,000,000 of
people, 15,000,000 of cattle, 2,250,000 horses, 18,000,000 swine, and
innumerable smaller domestic animals, maintain over 40,000,000 sheep,
worth $250,000,000; and besides manufacturing nearly all their fleeces,
annually import nearly an equal amount from abroad. The sumptuary law
for burying the dead in woollen, still occupies its place in their
statute book. And beyond all question, England is the leading power of
the nineteenth century, in the combination of all those qualities which
constitute national greatness, civilization, and strength.
VARIETIES.
Naturalists have divided the wild sheep into four varieties. The
_Musimon_, (_Ovis Musimon_,) inhabiting Corsica, Sardinia, and other
islands of the Mediterranean, the mountainous parts of Spain and Greece,
and some other regions bordering upon that inland sea, have been
frequently domesticated and mixed with the long-cultivated breeds.
The _Argali_, (_O. Ammon_,) ranges over the steppes, or elevated plains
of Central Asia, northward and eastward to the ocean. They are larger,
more hardy, and more untameable than the Musimon.
The _Rocky Mountain Sheep_, (_O. Montana_,) frequently called the
_Big-horn_ by our western hunters, is found on the prairies west of the
Mississippi, and throughout the wild mountainous regions, extending
through California and Oregon to the Pacific. They are larger, but in
other respects resemble the Argali, of which they are probably
descendants, as they could easily cross upon the ice at Behring's
Straits, from the northeastern coast of Asia. Like the Argali, when
caught young they are easily tamed; but we are not aware that they have
ever been bred with the domestic sheep. Before the country was overrun
by the white man, they probably inhabited the region bordering on the
Mississippi. Father Hennepin, a French Jesuit, who wrote nearly two
hundred years ago, often speaks of meeting with goats in his travels
through what is now the territory embraced by Illinois and Wisconsin.
The wild, clambering propensities of these animals, occupying the giddy
heights far beyond the reach of the traveller, and the outer coating of
hair (supplied underneath, however, with a thick coating of soft wool)
gives to them much of the appearance of that animal. In summer they are
generally found single; but when they descend from their isolated, rocky
heights in winter, they are gregarious, marching in flocks under the
guidance of leaders.
The _Bearded Sheep of Africa_ (_O. Tragelaphus_) inhabit the mountains
of Barbary and Egypt. They are covered with a soft, reddish hair, and
have a mane hanging below the neck, and large locks of hair at the
ankle.
The Domesticated Sheep (_O. Aries_)
Embraces all the varieties of the subjugated species. Whether they have
descended from any one of the wild races, is a question yet
undetermined among naturalists; but however this may be, many of the
varieties apparently differ less from their wild namesakes than from
each other.
The _fat-rumped_ and _the broad-tailed sheep_ are much more extensively
diffused than any other. They occupy nearly all the southeastern part of
Europe, Western and Central Asia, and Northern Africa. They are supposed
to be the varieties which were propagated by the patriarchs and their
descendants, the Jewish race. This is inferred from various passages in
the Pentateuch, Exodus xxix. 22; Leviticus iii. 9; viii. 25; ix. 19, and
some others, where "the fat and the rump" are spoken of in connection
with offerings, in which the fat was always an acceptable ingredient.
Dr. Boothroyd renders one of the foregoing passages, "the large, fat
tail entire, taken clear to the rump." It is certain this variety gives
indisputable evidence of remote and continued subjugation. Their long,
pendent, drowsy ears, and the highly artificial posterior developments,
are characteristic of no wild or recently-domesticated race.
This breed consists of numerous sub-varieties, differing in all their
characteristics of size, fleece, color, &c., with quite as many and
marked shades of distinction as the modern European varieties. In
Madagascar, they are covered with hair; in the south of Africa, with
coarse wool; in the Levant, and along the Mediterranean, the wool is
comparatively fine; and from that of the fat-rumped sheep of Thibet the
exquisite Cashmere shawls are manufactured. Both rams and ewes are
sometimes bred with horns, and sometimes without, and they exhibit a
great diversity of color. Some yield a carcass of scarcely 30 lbs.,
while others have weighed 200 lbs. dressed. The tail or rump varies
greatly, according to the purity and style of breeding; some are less
than one-eighth, while others exceed one-third the entire dressed
weight. The fat of the rump or tail is considered a great delicacy, and
in hot climates resembles oil, and in colder, suet.
The broad-tailed sheep were brought into this country, about 50 years
since, by Commodore Barron and Judge Peters, and bred with the native
flocks. They were called the Tunisian mountain sheep. Some of them were
subsequently distributed by Col. Pickering, of Massachusetts, among the
farmers of Pennsylvania; and their mixed descendants were highly prized
as prolific and good nurses, coming early to maturity, attaining large
weights, of a superior quality of carcass, and yielding a heavy fleece
of excellent wool. The principal objection brought against them, was
the difficulty of propagation, which always required the assistance of
the shepherd. The lambs were dropped white, red, tawny, bluish, or
black; but all excepting the black, grew white as they approached
maturity, retaining some spots of the original color on the cheeks and
legs, and sometimes having the entire head tawny or black. The few which
descended from those originally imported into this country, have become
blended with American flocks, and are now scarcely distinguishable from
them.
Native or Common Sheep of the United States.
Strictly speaking, there are no sheep indigenous to North America,
excepting the _Ovis Montana_, or Rocky Mountain sheep. Before the
introduction of the improved European breeds, during the present
century, our sheep were generally a hardy, long-legged, coarse,
open-fleeced animal, which yielded, according to attention and feed,
from 11/2 to 4 lbs. of indifferent wool. We have seen numerous flocks
within the last 20 years, of the pure-bred native, whose bellies were
entirely destitute of wool, and sometimes the whole carcass was bare,
excepting a mere strip or ridge like a mane, reaching from the head to
the tail. The wool which was retained on the neck, back, and sides, was
frequently matted almost as firmly as a leather apron; and that on the
thighs, and sometimes on the sides, was often composed almost wholly of
long hair.
Although indifferently formed in comparison with the best breeds of the
present day, being thin in the breast and back, light quartered, and
slow in coming to maturity, they yet possessed some good qualities. They
were prolific, excellent nurses, tallowed well, and yielded good mutton.
There were, occasionally, some smutty-nosed or brockle-faced sheep among
them, distinguished by their additional size, superior merits, and
courage. These were usually the leaders of the flock, in their marauding
expeditions on their neighbor's domains; and in common with the others,
they were eminently adapted to purvey for themselves on the frontier
settlements. There were, besides, some black or dark chocolate-brown
members in every flock, which were much valued by the thrifty housewife
for their wool, which afforded an economical mixture for jackets, hose,
and trousers, known as sheep's gray.
Our original stock were principally derived from England, where their
counterparts may be seen at the present day, in the refuse breeds of
that country. When these sheep were well selected and properly bred,
there was rapid and satisfactory improvement, and from such f
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