The live-stock of the farm

Chapter I. Page

Introduction, i

Chapter II. Breeding

Selection — Atavism — Disturbing influences — Breeding in-and-in —

Elements of food— Milk— Wheat— Bran— Barley — Malt— Malt-combs — Grains — Dreg — Oats — Rye— Indian com — Buckwheat — Rice — Dari — Beans, peas, and lentils — Lupin — Linseed — Linseed-cake — Rape-cake — Cotton-cake ■ — Palm-nut meal — Cocoa-cake — Poppy-cake — Locust or carob beans — Molasses — Turnips — Mangel-wurzel — Sugar-beet — Beet-root pulp — Carrots — Parsnips — Kohl - rabi — Cabbage — Potato — Green rape — Furze, whins, and gorse — The grasses — Clovers — Rye-grass — Natural grasses — Hay — Straw — Condimental cattle - food — Effects of food on manure, . . . . -34

Cross-breeding,

Chapter III. Food

Turnip-cutters — Pulping — Cooking — Chaff-cutters — Corn-bruising mills — Cake-crushers, . . . . ,

PREPARATION OF FOOD.

Chapter IV

vi

CONTENTS.

Chapter V. Cattle

Characteristics of different breeds — -Shorthorns — Herefords — Devons — Polled breeds — The Galloway breed — Angus and Aberdeen breeds — West Highland breed — Welsh cattle — Ayrshires — The Channel Islands breed — The Kerry breed- Norfolk and Suffolk breed — Sussex breed — Shetland or Zetland breed, . . . . . . . .102

Chapter VI. Management Of Cattle

Calves — Young cattle — Fattening cattle — Milch cows — Milk — Butter-making — Cheese-making — Associated dairies — Adulteration of milk, . . . . . . . 124

Chapter VII. Sheep

Characteristics of different breeds — Leicesters — Lincolns — Cotswolds — Roscommon sheep — Southdowns — Shropshires — Oxford Downs — Hampshire Downs — Dorset breed — Cheviots — Scotch Blackfaced — Lonks — Herd wicks — Welsh — Exmoor — Dartmoor — Crosses of breeds — Wool, ..... 249

Introduction

The production of animal food is becoming every day a matter of greater importance to the community. For a considerable time past the supply has been manifestly inadequate to meet the demand, and the value of meat has been increased so much that the article itself has practically become a luxury to the poorer classes. It is true that other causes than merely an inadequate supply of animals have contributed to this result. Contagious diseases, formerly unknown, have caused great mortality amongst those domestic animals which are bred for the purpose of supplying food to the community. But apart from this, there is a deficiency of animal food which can only be met by improved management on the part of those who breed, rear, and fatten live-stock. That there is ample room for improvement, and for increased production of meat, must be evident to all who have given the subject the slightest consideration, especially when the defective systems of stock management prevalent

A

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in many parts of the kingdom are taken into account. We must also keep in view that the population of the British Islands must depend chiefly for their supplies of animal food upon their home resources. When the British ports were opened by the late Sir Robert Peel, in 1842, to foreign live-stock, it was expected that this country would be largely supplied with meat from Continental sources, and that its price would sink to and remain at so low a point that it would be within the reach of all classes. That expectation has not been realised. No doubt, for some time after the ports were opened the value of home-bred stock was so reduced as to cause serious injury to British farmers ; but that state of matters did not last long, and meat has for many years steadily increased in value. Importations of foreign live-stock have failed to permanently reduce the price of meat ; — first, because since importation was allowed vast numbers of home-bred animals have been destroyed by contagious diseases, which are generally regarded as being primarily introduced into this country by the foreign stock ; and next, because the imported supplies of living animals have fallen very much short of what they were expected to be. Thus, the imported cattle, sheep, and swine during the five years 1867 to 1871 inclusive, bore to the home-bred stock of the same kinds the proportion of not quite two per cent on the aggregate.* There

* In the report of the Veterinary Department to the Privy Council for 1870, it was calculated that there was 18,022,973 cwt. of meat consumed in Great Britain in that year. Of the supply of meat actually consumed, 67 per cent was home production of Great Britain ; 20.2 per cent was imported from Ireland ; and 12.8 per cent was foreign, of which there came 7. 1 in foreign live animals, and 5.7 per cent in foreign dead meat. These figures show a consumption in Great Britain of 78 lb. of meat in the year per head of population— namely, 52 lb. home production, 16 lb. Irish, and 10 lb. foreign.

INTRODUCTION.

are other reasons for the increasing value of meat to be considered in connection with the foregoing points — namely, the rapidly increasing population of Great Britain, more especially in the great centres of food consumption ; and next, the greater prosperity and higher earnings of the labouring classes, which enable them to consume more meat than formerly. All these considerations show that the increase of home-bred stock is a matter in which the community at large, as well as the agriculturists of the United Kingdom, have a deep interest.

The production of animal food, or, as it has been termed the meat manufacture, embraces a wide field of investigation. It must be owned, however, that the rearing and fattening of our domestic animals is too often looked upon as something of which every one naturally possesses a sufficient amount of intuitive knowledge to enable them at once, and under any circumstances, to become proficients, without the formality of previous study, or that acquaintance with the subject which, in any other occupation, would be deemed indispensable in order to insure even a probability of success. To this cause we may easily trace most of the failures which we meet with, the imperfect state in which what ought to be the finished article is frequently brought to market, and the consequent disappointment as to results we sometimes hear expressed. So far from being easily understood, the entire subject, which is summed up under the name of the " meat manufacture," including the breeding, rearing, and final preparation of animals for use as human food, is perhaps the most complicated department in agricultural science, requiring the exercise of rare skill and judgment in order to be successful in the prosecution of it. In many respects we are as yet only

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groping our way, and further investigation is necessary before we are in full possession of all the facts which serve to throw light on the science and practice of this important subject. A sufficient amount of research, however, has been made to enable us to understand the general principles of the matter, and, in some degree, that waste of material which must arise from the indiscriminate use of the substances we employ as the food of animals, without reference to their fitness for the purpose they are intended to serve ; and also the nature of those agents which exert an influence, whether favourable or otherwise, on the full development of the nutritive powers of those substances. In treating the subject, therefore, we purpose not only to take the different stages of the " meat manufacture " in detail, but also to notice certain points which materially affect the production of meat.

Chapter II. Breeding

A KNOWLEDGE of the principles of breeding lies at the foundation of the meat manufacture. The richest kinds of food may be used in feeding stock ; but these will be comparatively useless if the animals are of a description which do not readily assimilate food, or are ill-thriving animals, as such are designated in practical phraseology. But, important as a knowledge of the principles of breeding undoubtedly is, it must be confessed that it is a complicated subject, and one upon which a variety of opinions are entertained. We shall, however, confine our remarks to certain points regarding which, we believe, there exists sufficient evidence to prove their practical value.

That " like produces like " has long been recognised as a settled fact with relation to the breeding of animals. A draught stallion will not produce a colt fit to run at the Derby, nor will a Derby winner beget a colt that would suit a brewer's dray. If we have a sire, whether stallion, bull, ram, or boar, which is ill shaped, and put the same to a female similarly defec- ' tive, the produce will inherit the defects of the parents. But we may go further ; for if one or other of the parents is defective, the probability is that the particular defect will be repeated, more or less, in the offspring. It is true the influence of the sire is often so

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great as to overcome that of a defective female. Peculiar characteristics are inherited both from sire and dam, and hence the necessity for careful selection in breeding-stock. The offspring of many sires present the characteristics^ their male parent ; while in other cases the female appears to possess the property of impressing her own characteristics, or those which she has inherited, on her offspring. As a rule, it is advisable to select a sire which possesses qualities or points in respect to which the female to which he is to be put is defective. Thus, if a cow is light-fleshed and delicate, the most suitable sire to put her to will be one that is fleshy, and possesses a vigorous constitution.

In selecting a sire, the influence which the dam exercises on the character of her progeny should receive due consideration. In many cases the selection of a bull is determined chiefly, if not altogether, by his own character, or that of the sire. The same principle guides many persons in the selection of stallions, rams, and boars. Hence the disappointment which has not unfrequently been experienced where a good-looking and very promising sire, or one which has been got by a " crack " bull or stallion, has got very unsatisfactory stock. On the other hand, a well-bred but plain sire has often got very superior animals. These contrarieties are usually due to the influence of the sire's dam. The prudent breeder should therefore endeavour to ascertain the character of the dam of the sire he intends to use. Much more depends upon this point than is generally supposed ; and, unfortunately, the male produce of very worthless females is frequently retained, to be used for breeding purposes. The male produce of a female which has a delicate constitution, a narrow chest, and weak loins, should be rigidly rejected.

BREEDING.

An important point in breeding is selection. This requires judgment, but it is essential where it is the intention of the breeder to establish and perpetuate certain desirable characteristics. It was this principle upon which Mr Thomas Booth acted when he commenced, more than eighty years ago, to improve the then existing breed of shorthorns, and to lay the foundation of those characteristics which are now universally recognised as belonging to the Booth herds of the present day. Mr Carr states, in his history of these herds, that Mr Thomas ;Booth "appears to have proceeded on the principle that whilst the general similitude and mingled qualities of both parents descend to the offspring, the external conformation — subject, of course, to some modification by the other parent — is mainly imparted by the male, and the vital and nutritive organs by the female. . . . Having judiciously selected the best animals procurable of both sexes, Mr Thomas Booth was careful to pair such, and such only, of the produce of these unions as presented in a satisfactory degree the desired characteristics, with animals possessing them in equal or greater measure ; and unsparingly to reject, especially from his male stock, all such as were not up to the required standard." Mr Bates and other noted breeders pursued the same system in establishing and perpetuating those characteristics which they considered desirable.

It is much to be regretted that careful selection, especially in the case of males, is not so closely attended to by many breeders of the present day as it ought to be. Bull-calves are not unfrequently kept for breeding purposes chiefly because they have fashionable pedigrees, rather than for their merits, considered merely as breeding-stock. Of course such bulls sell, for the pedigree sells them ; but however important a pedigree

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is — and it is a most important point — still a fashionable pedigree will not make up for want of merit in a bull. One of the worst shorthorn bulls we have ever seen had an exceedingly fashionable pedigree, and on that account the breeder had charged a long price for him. But he was a narrow, flat-ribbed/light-fleshed, delicateanimal; fortunately for the purchaser, he died before he had time to do much mischief. This does not prove that pedigree is not an important point to be taken into consideration in the selection of breeding-stock ; it merely proves that occasionally, and in spite of a long line of good blood, an animal will crop up which does not possess sufficient merit to render it desirable to retain that animal for breeding purposes. In fact, when such occurs, a prudent breeder should not permit a defective animal to go forth as a specimen of his herd, but should at once banish it to the bullockyard. Lord Rivers, who was a most successful breeder of greyhounds, attributed his success, Mr Finlay Dun tells us, to his rule of " breeding many and hanging many."

The results of judicious selection soon become manifest in the breeding of a flock of sheep. A distinctive type, or family likeness, becomes impressed upon the flock, which is never seen where the principle of selection is not carefully carried out. The same takes place in other varieties of animals, and no breeder who wishes to attain or to retain excellence can safely neglect it.

Returning to the question of pedigree as affecting the selection of breeding-stock, we would remark that whilst a bull which is obviously defective in important points should not be selected merely on account of his pedigree, at the same time we believe it is even more dangerous to select a well -shaped, stylish - looking

BREEDING.

animal, whose pedigree is defective. We have known bulls of this description to be awarded prizes, and consequently held up as presenting the best specimens of their kind, although no prudent breeder who knew how those animals were bred would think of using them. Such animals are exceedingly dangerous, as inexperienced breeders are apt to be led astray by their outward appearance, and in most cases, by the low price at which they can be obtained, compared with that of really well-bred bulls. That experienced breeder of shorthorns, Mr Grove, referring to this very point, says : "An animal has certain qualities apparent to the hand and eye ; it has also hidden qualities that neither the hand nor the eye can detect, but which hidden or latent qualities descend to the offspring, and when the animal has been crossed with another animal of different blood, will produce new combinations palpable and unexpected. The above maxim \i. e., that " like begets like"] is true then in this sense, that though the offspring may appear unlike either parent, yet the peculiar properties of the parents are not lost in the offspring — they are inherited, but in combination may have produced effects that probably had not, and could not with any degree of certainty have been foreseen. That these qualities are not lost would appear evident, as it is found that peculiarities of even remote ancestors will from time to time, more or less frequently, according to the skill and perseverance of the breeder, show themselves, or crop out, to use a geological expression." Mr William M'Combie, another veteran breeder, in recording his experience, says that " pedigree is of the utmost importance. We ought always to prefer a bull of high pedigree, with fair symmetry and quality, to another bull, though much superior in appearance, but of questionable

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pedigree. If the latter be turned to a herd superior in blood to himself, incalculable mischief may be done. Breeders have not given the subject the attention it deserves. I have paid dearly for my experience in the matter." And again, — " If pedigree be ignored, and the sire be of doubtful antecedents, except in an accidental case, the progeny will be at best of medium quality." Apart altogether from the mischief which a bull of questionable pedigree would do when put to a herd of well-bred cows, the evil is even greater when a badly-bred bull is used in breeding ordinary stock of shorthorn blood, such as are to be met with at fairs and markets. The evil is greater in this case, because more persons are engaged in breeding ordinary market shorthorns than in breeding high pedigreed stock. The result of using cross-bred mongrel bulls with common cows is to depreciate the value of the offspring to the extent of from £4 to £5 a-head, even when the young cattle are not more than one year and a half old — compared with the prices obtained for the produce of well-bred bulls, from cows of the same kind. Although we desire to enforce the importance of pedigree in sires, we would at the same time wish it to be understood that mere length does not always constitute a valuable pedigree. It would be an easy, although perhaps a somehat invidious matter, to point out certain pedigrees whose chief, if not in a great measure their sole merit, consists in their length. Such pedigrees merely show that a mass of incongruous materials has been heaped together; while a much shorter pedigree, which some persons might overlook or undervalue on account of its shortness, will show an amount of potent impressiveness that renders it of infinitely more value than the other, notwithstanding its much greater length.

BREEDING.

II

In the extract given above, showing the views on breeding entertained by Mr Grove, it is stated that " peculiarities of even remote ancestors will from time to time show themselves, or crop out." This leads us to the consideration of what is technically termed " breeding back," or atavism, which occasionally produces some very curious and unexpected results.

Experienced breeders will have no difficulty in recalling various examples of this peculiarity. A few illustrations, however, will be found interesting. The late Mr Boswell of Balmuto stated in a prize report on Breeding, which appeared in the seventh volume of the ' Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society,' that "a great many years ago the father of the present Sir Alexander Ramsay of Fasque brought a few of the Lancashire cattle to Scotland, — a breed then much in fashion, and, as every one knows, remarkable for having uncommonly widespreading horns, and all with some white, especially on the back. These cattle were intermixed with the cows of the country ; and when Sir Alexander came to his estate, the cattle were all horned. About that time the polled or dodded came greatly into vogue in Angus, and Sir Alexander purchased, from time to time, jet-black polled bulls, so that in a short time all his cows were of this sort. Nevertheless every year, even to this day [1825], one or two calves 'cry back ' to the Lancashire, having white and horns ; and — what is singular — it is almost invariably in the male that this takes place."

A more recent illustration of atavism has come under our notice. In the early part of 1871, a cow which had at least six crosses of high-class and well-known shorthorn bulls in her pedigree, produced a calf which was a perfect West Highland in colour,

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&c. There could be no mistake about the breeding of the calf, for there was not a Highland bull in the district, and probably not a single animal of the Highland breed within many miles, while the bull to which the cow had been put was one of the most noted shorthorn bulls of the day. The explanation given by the breeder was simply this : About twenty-five years previous to the birth of this calf, he became the owner of a very handsome black West Highland heifer, which he put to a highly-bred shorthorn bull. Since that time the descendants of that West Highland heifer have been regularly bred, in their successive generations, from first-rate shorthorn bulls, and had presented every characteristic of the pure -bred shorthorn, until, in the seventh generation, the produce bred back at a bound to the original. We have repeatedly seen the polled head, with its characteristic tuft, of the polled Angus come out after several generations got by shorthorn bulls ; and there is little reason to doubt that the black noses which occasionally " crop out " in highly-bred shorthorns have come down from the Kyloe or Dutch blood which mingled with the original animals from which the stained progeny are descended. Some years ago an extensive landed proprietor in the north of Scotland purchased a thorough-bred stallion in England, of which he allowed his tenants to have the service for their mares. This horse was a dark bay, having a very small star on his forehead, and a few white hairs round one fetlock. He was put to his owner's mares, and to all that were sent to him ; and as he bore a high character on account of his blood, the number of country mares sent was considerable. They were, of course, of all the usual shades of colour, — black, brown, and grey ; and yet, with very

BREEDING.

few exceptions, nearly all the foals got by that horse were light chestnuts, having white legs, and in many cases also white bellies. In consequence of this undesirable and unlooked-for result, the owner set on foot a strict inquiry in England into the history of the stallion's ancestors, when it was ascertained that his great-great-grandam, a famous mare in her time, had been a light chesnut, with white legs and white belly. The objectionable markings, however, had never appeared in any intermediate generation. The horse was from a celebrated stud, and there was not the slightest doubt about the matter, inasmuch as his ancestors had all belonged to the same stud.

It is well known that pure white ewes that have been served by pure white rams of the same breed occasionally produce black lambs ; and in such cases, although two or three generations, or more, may have been quite free from the objectionable colour, yet it will be found, when the case is traced back, that there existed in the same family a black ancestor, generally a female. The : same peculiarity is observable in swine ; and thus we sometimes find black Berkshire sows producing pigs which have the yellow colour with black spots which marked some of the remote ancestors of the present improved breed.

Breeding back is not, however, the sole disturbing cause which has been experienced by breeders, and there is one which merits a larger share of attention than it has received from breeders in general. It is this — that the sire which is first used, and to which the mare, heifer, or other female, produces offspring, may, as Dr Harvey of Aberdeen pointed out several years ago, " so influence her future offspring begotten by other males, as, to a greater or less extent, to ingraft upon them his own distinctive features." In r 4

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support of this view, Dr Harvey stated, among other things, that " in several foals in the royal stud at Hampton Court, got by the horse Acteon, there were unequivocal marks of the horse Colonel, by which the dams of these foals were covered the previ6us year. Again, a colt, the property of the Earl of Suffield, got by Laurel, so resembled another horse (Camel) that it was whispered, nay, even asserted, at Newmarket, that he must have been got by Camel. It was ascertained, however, that the only relation which the colt bore to Camel was, that the latter had served his mother the previous season."

The case of the Earl of Morton's mare has been often quoted. She had been served by a quagga, and the offspring bore distinct marks of the sire, both in the cross bars which distinguish that species, and also in the formation of different parts of the body. This was, of course, to be expected ; but when the same mare was afterwards put to a stallion of her own kind, the progeny still bore the distinctive marks of the quagga.* Evidence of a somewhat similar case has come under our notice. A superior Clydesdale mare was served two years successively by a large Spanish ass, and in the third year by a Clydesdale stallion. The foal by the latter resembled a mule in every respect, having very long ears, long and narrow hoofs, and a thin and scanty tail, exactly like that of a mule.

Again, black polled cows, which had, when heifers, been put to a shorthorn bull, and in after-years to black bulls of their own breed, have produced calves by the latter similar in colour and otherwise to the offspring of the shorthorn bull. One notable instance

* An account of this case will be found in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1821.

BREEDING.

of this kind came under our own observation. A black polled cow, descended by sire and dam from a herd well known in Angusshire previous to the rinderpest, had been crossed, when a heifer, by a well-bred shorthorn bull. She subsequently became the property of a gentleman who exhibited her successfully on various occasions ; and being desirous to have a black polled calf from her, she was sent to a prize polled Angus bull. The calf, however, was a nice roan horned calf, exactly resembling the shorthorn bull by which she had been first served. ' The owner of the cow was highly indignant, believing that some fraud had been practised upon him ; but it was fully ascertained that the owner of the black polled bull to which the cow had been sent had no other bull about his place ; and as the cow had travelled by rail between the two places, it was at least improbable she could have been served in the interval by any other bull than the polled bull. After we discussed the matter with the owner of the cow, he became satisfied that the peculiar appearance of the calf was due to that singular feature in the physiology of breeding to which we have been alluding.

Dr Harvey stated, on the authority of Mr William M'Combie, that six very superior pure-bred blackfaced horned ewes were tupped, some of them by a Leicester and others by a South Down ram. Next year the same ewes were put to a very fine pure black -faced horned ram, of the same breed as the ewes themselves, and the lambs thus begotten were all without exception polled, and brownish in the face. The same occurred the year following, the ram used being another of their own breed. If we take a lot of aged Cheviot ewes, which have previously produced lambs two or three years successively, to pure Cheviot

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tups, and put them to a Leicester ram, we shall find that whilst many of the number will produce lambs which present the characteristics of the sire, there will be some whose lambs will show a closer resemblance to the pure Cheviot — so much so, indeed, as scarcely to mark them as distinct in any way from the pure breed. If, on the other hand, we take a lot of Cheviot gimmers, and put them to pure Leicester rams, the lambs thus begotten will run to the Leicester side, almost without exception. Again, if we take a lot of aged West Highland cows, which, in like manner, have produced a succession of calves to bulls of the same breed, and put these cows to a pure shorthorn bull, the progeny will not be so equal in appearance as the produce of West Highland heifers which had been put for the first time to a shorthorn bull. Such, at least, have been the results of our observation and experience in this matter.

It is evident that such results as those which are detailed in the foregoing cases do not, perhaps, occur in so regular a manner as to enable us to lay down any general rule ; but, nevertheless, they do occur in such a way as to afford a good reason why we should be exceedingly cautious with respect to the character of the sires we employ, more especially when such are used for the first time with females of any class of stock. Since it is the case that the female system, at least occasionally, " imbibes certain influences from the male, which modify her future progeny with other males," it will be seen that the use of cross-bred or impure sires with purely-bred females has an injurious effect, not only in the case of the immediate offspring, but may also extend its influence to the produce of pure sires which are afterwards used. Hence the mischief produced by the use of impure sires is not

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