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.

[Pg 5]

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.[Pg 6]

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

[Pg 7]

INDEX.

[Pg 9]

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[Pg 10]
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.[Pg 11]

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[Pg 12]
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 fœtus, 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[Pg 13]
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.[Pg 14]

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 fœces and urine, and[Pg 15]
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.”[Pg 16]

FOOD CONSUMED BY THE HORSE IN 24 HOURS.

PRODUCTS VOIDED BY THE HORSE IN 24 HOURS.

FOOD CONSUMED BY THE COW IN 24 HOURS.

PRODUCTS VOIDED BY THE COW IN 24 HOURS.

[Pg 17]

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 fœces 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[Pg 18]
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 papillæ 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[Pg 19]
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 herbivoræ 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 com[Pg 20]modity
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[Pg 21]
in the open air, between the 21st November and 1st December.
They consumed 90 pounds of food per day, the temperature
being at 44°, 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°. 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.[Pg 22]

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[Pg 23]
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.

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[Pg 24]
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;[Pg 25]
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 4½ 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[Pg 26]
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[Pg 27]
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[Pg 28]
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[Pg 29]
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[Pg 30]
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.[Pg 31]
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;[Pg 32]
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.

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 im[Pg 33]mediately
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.

Fig. 2.

Short-Horned Cow.

[Pg 34]

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.[Pg 35]

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[Pg 37]
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.”

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.[Pg 38]
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[Pg 39]
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,[Pg 40]
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.[Pg 41]

Diseases and Remedies.

For disordered bowels, mix 2 dr. rhubarb, 2 oz. castor oil,
and ½ 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 diarrhœa, 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[Pg 42]
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[Pg 43]
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.[Pg 44]

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.

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.

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[Pg 45]
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.

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[Pg 46]
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.

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

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[Pg 47]-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.

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[Pg 48]
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.

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.

[Pg 49]

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.
Vertebræ, 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.

[Pg 50]

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.

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.[Pg 51]

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 1½ 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.

Fig. 15.

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[Pg 52]
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,
¼ lb.; unguentum, (or mercurial ointment,) 2 ounces; linseed
oil, 1 pint. Melt the turpentine and warm the oil, and when[Pg 53]
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.[Pg 54]

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 ¾ 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 fœtid 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 drink[Pg 55]ing
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, 1½ 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.[Pg 56]

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 Diarrhœa.

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, (Œstrus 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 1½ 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.[Pg 57]

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.[Pg 58]

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[Pg 59]
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 interdict[Pg 60]ed,
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[Pg 61]
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 fœtus 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[Pg 62]
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 mammaliæ. 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[Pg 63]
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 3½ lbs. of butter; two others in the same time gave
86, yielding 5½ 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[Pg 64]
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.[Pg 65]

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°, 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°, the cream will mostly have risen
in 36 hours; at 55°, in 24; at 68°, in 18 or 20; and at 77°,
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[Pg 66]
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.[Pg 67]

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 [Pg 68]
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.

Fig. 18.

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.

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[Pg 69]
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° Fahrenheit
It rises during the churning from 4° to 10° F. above its original
temperature. When the whole milk is churned, the temperature
should be raised to 65° 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°. 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[Pg 70]
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;[Pg 71]
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[Pg 72]
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.”[Pg 73]

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-[Pg 74]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[Pg 75]
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.[Pg 76]

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,[Pg 77]
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° or 95° 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° 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[Pg 78]
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.[Pg 79]

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 2½ 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 2½ 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.[Pg 80]

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 Ge[Pg 81]rome,
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[Pg 82]
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° and 70° 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[Pg 83]
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.]

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[Pg 84]
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[Pg 85]
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[Pg 86]
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, Æneas 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.[Pg 87]

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[Pg 88]
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 prin[Pg 89]cipal
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 1½ 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[Pg 90]
well selected and properly bred, there was rapid and satisfactory
improvement, and from such flocks, mixed with some of
the more recently improved varieties, have sprung many valuable
animals.

There was but one exception to this general character of
the native flocks, so far as our observation extended, which
was a considerably numerous, and, probably, accidental variety,
known as the Otter breed, or Creepers. These were an excessively
duck-legged animal, with well-formed bodies, full
chest, broad backs, yielding a close heavy fleece of medium
quality of wool. They were deserved favorites where indifferent
stone or wood fences existed, as their power of locomotion
was absolutely limited to their enclosures, if protected by
a fence not less than two feet high. The quality of their
mutton was equal, while their aptitude to fatten was decidedly
superior to their longer-legged contemporaries. They are
probably now nearly or quite extinct.

An excellent variety was produced by General Washington,
from a cross of a Persian ram, upon the Bakewell, which bore
wool 14 inches in length, soft and silky, and admirably suited
to combing. They were called the Arlington sheep, but they
have long since become incorporated with the other flocks of
the country.

The Merino.

This is undoubtedly one of the most ancient race of sheep
extant. The loose descriptions and indefinite generalities of
the ancient writers, leave much to conjecture on this point;
yet we have a few passages from Pliny, Columella, and some
other Roman authors, which leave little doubt that the Merino
was bred in their age, and had even been introduced into
Italy from Greece. It is a matter of history, that the Greeks
had choice breeds of sheep at an early day, which they
might have derived from Egypt, Tyre, and Asia Minor, as
they were intimately connected in commerce with those countries,
where the woollen manufacture early reached great perfection.
It is supposed that the celebrated Argonautic expedition,
in quest of the golden fleece, undertaken by the
Greeks nearly 1300 years before Christ, resulted in procuring
a valuable race of sheep from Colchis, in the Euxine.

However this may be, it is certain that when Augustus extended
his peaceful sceptre over half the known world, the
Romans were in possession of some flocks, bearing fleeces of[Pg 91]
exceeding fineness and beauty. They had been reared in the
province of Apulia, on the southeast coast of Italy, and
were called Tarentine, from Tarentum, the capital of the
province. Here, then, may have been one branch of the
Merino family.

Another is undoubtedly described by Pliny, who says, “the
red fleece of Bætica was of still superior quality, and had no
fellow.” All the Spanish coast on the Mediterranean, of
which Bætica formed a considerable part, comprising the
modern Spanish provinces of Jaen, Cordova, Seville, Andalusia,
and Granada, was early colonized by the enterprising
Greeks; and this red fleece that had no fellow, was probably
introduced by them at an early day, and by their descendants
had been carried to a still higher degree of perfection
than that of Apulia. Columella, the uncle of the writer on
agriculture, a wealthy emigrant to Spain from Italy, A. D. 30,
carried with him some of the Tarentine sheep, and thus added
to the fine-woolled sheep of Spain. These two ancient streams,
united perhaps with a third from the more ancient stock of
the Euxine, (for Strabo asserts that some of the finest-woolled
sheep were brought from that region in his time, and sold for
the enormous sum of $750,) flowed on in an uninterrupted
current over that broad country, and brought down to
modern times the unrivalled race of the Merino. The limited
region of Italy, overrun as it repeatedly was by hordes of
barbarians during and after the times of the late emperors,
soon lost her pampered flocks; while the extended regions of
Spain, intersected in every direction by almost impassable
mountains, could maintain their more hardy race, in defiance
of revolution or change.

Whatever distrust may be attached to these scraps of history,
which apparently establish the remote antiquity of the Merino,
this much is absolutely certain, that they are a race whose qualities
are inbred, to an extent surpassed by no others. They
have been improved in the general weight and evenness of their
fleece, as in the celebrated flock of Rambouillet; in the uniformity
and excessive fineness of fibre, as in the Saxons; and in
their form and feeding qualities, in various countries; but
there has never yet been deterioration either in quantity or
quality of fleece or carcass, wherever transported, if supplied
with suitable food and attention. Most sheep annually shed
their wool if unclipped; while the Merino retains its fleece,
sometimes for five years, when allowed to remain unshorn.
This we conceive affords conclusive evidence of long-con[Pg 92]tinued
breeding among themselves, by which the very constitution
of the wool-producing organs beneath the skin have
become permanently established; and this property is transmitted
to a great extent even among the crosses, thus marking
them as an ancient and peculiar race.

The conquest by the Moors of a part of those fine provinces
in the south of Spain, so far from checking, served
rather to encourage the production of fine wool. They were
not only enterprising, but highly skilled in the useful arts,
and carried on extensive manufactories of fine woollen goods,
which they exported to different countries. After their expulsion
in the 15th century, by Ferdinand and Isabella, the
Spaniards preserved these manufactures in part, and sedulously
cherished their fine flocks; and knowing the incomparible
advantage they had in them, their sovereigns, except in
a few isolated instances, strictly prohibited their exportation.

Exportation of Merinoes from Spain.

History asserts that Henry VIII. of England, by permission
of Charles V., imported 3,000 Spanish sheep; but of what
kind is not mentioned, they having numerous varieties in
Spain. If of the true Merino, it will explain the superior
quality of the English middle-wools, the Ryeland, South
Downs, and some others.

The first well-authenticated exportation of the Spanish
Merino, was made to Sweden in 1723, by Alstroemer, which
solved the problem of their capacity for sustaining their
character, on rough fare and in a high northern latitude.
Lasteyrie, who wrote fifty years after the experiment had
been tried, speaks of their improvement, both in carcass and
the quality and quantity of fleece.

The next exportation was made to Saxony, in 1765, and
consisted of 105 rams and 114 ewes, but from what flocks
they were taken, history nowhere mentions. A second exportation
to that country was made in 1778, of 110 that
were variously selected, from the best flocks in Spain. From
these have descended the high-bred, silken-fleeced Saxons,
whose wool stands confessedly without a rival.

In 1775, the Empress Maria Theresa imported 300 Merinoes
into Germany, and placed them on the imperial farm in Hungary.
In 1786, an importation was made into Denmark and
her provinces; and again, in 1797, another flock of 300 was
brought into the kingdom, and placed at Esserum, about eight[Pg 93]
leagues from Copenhagen. In 1786, 100 rams and 200 ewes
were imported into Prussia, most of which were allowed to
perish from neglect and disease; but their places were fully
made up by later importations. The same year, 400 ewes
and rams were selected from the choicest Spanish flocks, and
placed on the royal farm of Rambouillet, in France, which
laid the foundation of the celebrated flock which bears that
name.

A small flock of inferior animals was clandestinely procured
by George III., of England, in 1788, which attracted little
attention. In 1791, a small but choice flock was presented
to that monarch by the Cortes of Spain, which soon acquired
high favor among many intelligent breeders. A part of these
were kept pure, and their descendants furnished the superb
flock of 700 Nigrettis, which procured for their owner, Mr.
Trimmer, in 1829, the gold medal from the London Society
of Arts. Others were mixed with different flocks in the kingdom,
to the evident improvement of their fleeces.

The first importation of Merinoes into the United States,

Which resulted in the propagation of a pure breed,[2] was
made by Chancellor Livingston, then minister at the court of
Versailles, who sent two choice rams and ewes from the Rambouillet
flock, in 1802, to Claremont, his country seat on the
Hudson. In the latter part of the same year, Col. Humphreys,
our minister in Spain, sent out nearly one hundred Merinoes,
which were followed by more numerous flocks from the same
and other sources. The largest importations of the Merino,
however, were made through Mr. Jarvis of Vermont, in 1809,
then U. S. Consul in Spain, and immediately thereafter. He
first shipped, as he states, “200 Escurial, afterwards 1400
Paulars, 1700 Aqueirres, 100 Nigrettis, and about 200 Montarcos.
2700 Montarcos were sent out by a Spaniard and a
Portuguese, and about 300 Guadaloupes by others; also 200
to 300 Paulars, by Gen. Downie, to Boston. Of the Montarco
flock shipped by others, about 2500 came to Boston, Providence,
New York, and other ports. All were imported in the
latter part of 1809 and ’10, and early in 1811, and were the
only Leonese Transhumantes, if we include Humphreys’ and
Livingston’s, (which I have no doubt were of the same stock,)
that were ever shipped to the United States.”

Fig. 20 is a spirited cut of a variety of the Merino without
dewlap, and with a long and somewhat open fleece.

Fig. 20.

Merino Buck.

Varieties of the Spanish Sheep.

Besides several other breeds of sheep in Spain, consisting of
long, coarse wool, and that of a medium staple, embraced
under the different names of Chorinoes, Choaroes or Chunahs,
the Merino is distinguished by two general divisions; the
Transhumantes or travelling, and the Estantes or stationary
flocks. The former are subdivided, according to the Provinces
they occupy, into Leonese, Segovian, and Sorian. Many of
the Estantes were of the best quality in respect to carcass,
constitution, and fleece; and such as were highly bred and in
the hands of intelligent breeders, were not surpassed by any
of the Spanish flocks. There were also many choice sheep
among the Segovian and Sorian Transhumantes, but in general
they were decidedly inferior to those of Leon. These
last were universally regarded as the prime flocks of Spain.
They comprised the Escurial, the Paular, the Nigretti, the[Pg 95]
Aqueirres or Muros, the Montarco, the Guadaloupe, Infantado,
and some others.

There is much contradictory testimony as to the comparative
merits of the last-mentioned flocks, as they were found in Spain;
which is owing in part, doubtless, to the difference in the
specimens subjected to examination. We subjoin some of the
most reliable authorities on this subject.

M. Lasteyrie, who investigated this matter closely, says,
“The Guadaloupe have the most perfect form, and are likewise
celebrated for the quantity and quality of their wool. The
Paular bear much wool of a fine quality, but they have a more
evident enlargement behind the ears, and a greater degree of
throatiness, and the lambs have a coarse hairy appearance,
which is succeeded by excellent wool. The lambs of the Infantado
have the same hairy coat when young. The Nigretti
are the largest and strongest of all the travelling sheep in
Spain.”

Mr. Livingston says, “The Escurial is the most perfect of all
the travelling flocks in Spain; the Guadaloupe for form, fineness
and abundance of the fleece; the Paular with similar
fleeces are larger bodied. Those of Castile and Leon have the
largest, with the finest coat. Those of Soria are small, with
very fine wool; and those also of Valencia, which do not
travel, and like the last have fine wool, but of a very short
staple.”

Mr. Jarvis, who spent many years in Spain, under every
advantage for studying them closely, and who also imported,
and has since bred large numbers of them on his estate in Vermont,
gives their characteristics with more particularity, and
at much greater length: “The Paulars were undoubtedly one
of the handsomest flocks in Spain. They were of middling
height, round-bodied, well spread, straight on the back, the
neck of the bucks rising in a moderate curve from the withers
to the setting on of the head, their head handsome, with aquiline
curve of the nose, with short, fine, glossy hair on the face,
and generally hair on the legs, the skin pretty smooth, that is,
not rolling up or doubling about the neck and body, as in
some other flocks; the crimp in the wool was not so short as
in many other flocks, the wool was somewhat longer, but it
was close and compact, and was soft and silky to the touch,
and the surface was not so much covered with gum. This
flock was originally owned by the Carthusian friars of Paular,
who were the best agriculturists in Spain, and was sold by
that order to the Prince of Peace when he came into power.[Pg 96]

The Nigretti flock were the tallest Merinoes in Spain, but
were not handsomely formed, being rather flat-sided, roach-back,
and the neck inclining to sink down from the withers;
the wool was somewhat shorter than the Paular, and more
crimped; the skin was more loose and inclined to double, and
many of them were woolled on their faces and legs down to
their hoofs. All the loose-skinned sheep had large dewlaps.

The Aqueirres were short-legged, round, broad-bodied, with
loose skins, and were more woolled about their faces and legs
than any other flock I ever saw; the wool was more crimped
than the Paular, and less than the Nigretti, but was thick and
soft. This flock formerly belonged to the Moors of Spain,
and at their expulsion was bought by the family of Aqueirres.
The wool in England was known as the Muros flock, and was
highly esteemed. All the bucks of these three flocks had
large horns.

The Escurials were about as tall as the Paulars, but not
quite so round and broad, being in general rather more slight
in their make; their wool was crimped, but not quite so thick
as the Paular or Nigretti, nor were their skins so loose as the
Nigretti and Aqueirres, nor had they so much wool on the
face and legs.

The Montarco bore a considerable resemblance to the Escurials.
The Escurial flock had formerly belonged to the crown,
but when Philip II. built the Escurial palace, he gave them
to the friars, whom he placed in a convent that was attached
to the palace, as a source of revenue. These four flocks were
moderately gummed.

The Guadaloupe flock was rather larger in the bone than
the two preceding, about the same height; but not quite so
handsomely formed; their wool was thick and crimped, their
skins loose and doubling, their faces and legs not materially
different from the two latter flocks, but in general they were
more gummed than either of the other flocks. In point of
fineness, there was very little difference between these six
flocks; and as I have been told by well-informed persons, there
is very little difference in this respect among the Leonese Transhumantes
in general. The Escurials, the Montarcos, and the
Guadaloupes, were not, in general, so heavy-horned as the
other three flocks, and about one in six of the bucks were
without horns.”

The Saxon,

We have before seen, is one of the varieties of the pure-bred[Pg 97]
Merino, the foundation of which was laid by an importation of
some of the choicest animals into Saxony, in 1765. The great
care and attention bestowed upon these sheep by the Elector,
the nobility, and the most intelligent farmers, soon carried them
to a point of uniformity and excellence of fleece, never exceeded
by the best of the original flocks. The breeders were selected
with almost exclusive reference to the quality of the
fleece. Great care was taken to prevent exposure throughout
the year, and they were housed on every slight emergency.
The consequence of this course of breeding and treatment has
been to reduce the size and weight of fleece, and partially to
impair that hardiness and vigor of constitution, which universally
characterized the original Transhumantes. In numerous
instances, this management resulted in permanent injury to the
character of their flocks, which America has severely felt in
several importations of worthless animals, and which a too great
eagerness for improvement induced her flockmasters to use with
the Spanish Merinoes and their descendants, as a means for[Pg 98]
this object, but which has resulted in the introduction of fatal
diseases and serious deterioration in their flocks.

Fig. 21.

Saxon Ram.

The first Importation of Saxons into this Country

Was made in 1823, of four good rams, two of which went
to Boston and the others to Philadelphia. The next was made
the following year, and consisted of 75 rams and ewes, which
were brought to Boston, and sold at public auction, and were
afterwards scattered over the country. Another lot of 180
followed the next year, to the same place, and was sold in the
same manner, but at an increased price, some selling as high
as $450 each.

These prices excited the spirit of speculation, and the following
year witnessed the importation of near 3,000, many of
which were decidedly inferior. These were all thrown upon
the market for the most they would command; and in many
instances, the sales not half covering the cost of importation,
the enterprise was abandoned as a speculation, or commercial
operation.

The late Henry D. Grove, of Hoosic, New York, a native of
Germany, and a highly intelligent and thoroughly bred shepherd,
accompanied some of the best early importations to this
country. He selected 105 choice animals for his own breeding,
which he imported in 1827, and 70 more equally good, in
1828, and with these he formed the flock from which he bred
to the time of his decease, in 1844.

The average weight of fleece from the entire flock of Mr.
Grove, nearly all of which were ewes and lambs, as stated by
him to the writer, in 1842, was 2 lbs. 14 ounces, thoroughly
washed on the sheep’s back. This was realized after a short
summer and winter’s keep, when the quantity of hay or its
equivalent fed to the sheep did not exceed by actual weight
1½ lbs. per day, except to the ewes, which received an additional
quantity just before and after lambing. This treatment
was attended with no disease or loss by death, and with an
increase of lambs, equalling one for every ewe.

In a flock of pure Saxony sheep owned by Mr. Smith of
Connecticut, as stated in a letter from the owner, published in
the American Shepherd, 104 ewes raised 101 lambs, and
yielded 341 lbs. of wool, which sold at 70 cents per lb. For
the 18 months preceding, he lost but three animals out of 300,
from ordinary casualties. But some flocks of pure Saxony do
not, in good condition, average 2 lbs. per head.[Pg 99]

A recent importation, (May, 1846,) made by Mr. Taintor
of Connecticut, consisting of four bucks and four ewes, from
the celebrated Saxon flock of Baron de Spreck, show a size
and apparent vigor of constitution, equalling any of their Merino
progenitors.

Fig. 22.

Rambouillet Buck.

The Rambouillet Flock.

This flock was founded in 1786, by Louis XVI., from a selection
of 400 of the best Spanish sheep, which were placed
on the royal farm at Rambouillet. These, like the Saxon, received
all the attention which intelligence and wealth could
bestow, and the consequence was soon manifest in their larger
size, and the increased weight and uniformity in the fineness
of their fleece; the last improvement being particularly evident,
from the absence of the coarse wool, which in many
cases infested the quarters; and the jarr or hair, which frequently
abounds on the flanks, legs, and thighs of the original
Merino.

Besides the crown flocks at Rambouillet, they are found in
equal perfection on several other of the royal farms, especially
those of Malmaison, Perpignan, Arles, Clermont, and some[Pg 100]
others. These flocks have been bred for hardy constitution,
large carcass, and heavy fleece, and of as much fineness as is
consistent with large weights, and as uniform in quality throughout,
as possible. Mr. Gilbert, who was particularly familiar
with them, says, “almost all the fleeces of the rams, from two
years old and upwards, weigh (unwashed) from 12 to 13 lbs.;
but the mean weight, taking the rams and the ewes together,
has not quite attained to 8 lbs., after deducting the tags and
the wool of the belly.” The French pound is about one-twelfth
heavier than the English; but from the general custom of
folding the sheep in France, feeding them in fallows, and wintering
them in houses, the fleece becomes very dirty. The
loss in washing (fit for manufacturing) is about 60 per cent.,
so that the clean fleece of the ram will average about 6 lbs.,
and that of the whole flock something under 4 lbs.

The first Importation of the Rambouillets to this Country.

This was in 1801, by M. Dellesert, of Paris, for M. Dupont,
then in New York, and consisted of four choice rams, only one
of which, Don Pedro, reached this country. He was used
among the native ewes near Kingston, N. Y., for three years,
and then transferred to Delaware, where he effected great improvement
among the native flocks. The second was that
made by the late Chancellor Livingston, before alluded to.
There was another in 1840, by Mr. Collins, of Connecticut,
comprising 30 select ewes and 2 rams. All these sheep possessed
the characteristics peculiar to the variety as described.

A still more recent importation has been made by Mr. Taintor,
at the same time with that of the Saxons previously mentioned,
consisting of 23 ewes and 3 bucks, variously selected
from the choicest flocks of the descendants of the Spanish
Merino. The rams, though young, are the most promising
animals of their breed, and when full grown, will weigh from
225 to 250 lbs. each. The sire of one was sold the past season
for $500. He sheared 23 lbs. of unwashed wool. The ewes
measured after they were shorn, from 25½ to 29 inches in
height over the withers. The height of the under side of
their bodies from the ground, was from 9½ to 12 inches, which
is in the proportion of good American Merino sheep. Their
weights varied, after shearing, from 124 to 153 lbs. Some of
them were quite thin in flesh, the largest especially, which, if
in fine condition with her fleece on, would weigh at least 200
lbs. The following is the weight of their fleeces unwashed.[Pg 101]
The scales used did not mark less than one-quarter of a
pound, which will account for the absence of odd ounces.

It was the unbiased opinion of several wool-dealers present,
that the shearing above would yield at least 35 lbs. of
cleansed wool, fitted for manufacturing without further loss,
out of every 100 lbs. shorn. The fourteen ewes yielded 216
lbs. unwashed, which would be equivalent to 75 lbs. 10
oz. thoroughly cleansed, or an average of 5 lbs. 6 oz. per
head. One-third may be safely added to bring this up to
clean washed. This would make the average, as wool-growers
usually dispose of their fleeces, 7 lbs. 3 oz. per head, a
yield totally unprecedented in this country.

The Progress of the Merino in the United States.

Though reaching back but half a century, the Merino flocks
of this country have been very fluctuating as to their value,
increase, and improvement. When first introduced, they
were viewed with distrust by the majority of our farmers;
and it was not till after several years’ experience of their paramount
merits, that they were generally disseminated. But
the confidence of our flock-masters having once been secured,
it has never been withdrawn, and they have ever since
been cherished favorites. The prices for choice Merinoes
rapidly increased after their character was fully established,
and Livingston states the average price for rams, in 1811, at
$1,000, and some were sold at a much higher rate.

This was the period of the embargo, when our infant
manufactures were just starting into life; and being followed
by war with the greatest commercial nation of the world,
we were thrown entirely on our own resources for the supply
of our woollen and other fabrics, and wool and sheep
maintained their full value till after the return of peace, in 1816.
The flooding of our country with foreign goods, under low
duties, which succeeded this event, either broke down or
effectually paralyzed our woollen manufactures; and wool, of
course, felt the full weight of this crushing influence. The[Pg 102]
Merino rapidly declined in value, till its price nearly approximated
to that of the native sheep. Their merits had,
however, become so conspicuous, that the low prices produced
a more general diffusion, and they and their crosses
were thus sown broadcast over the country.

The introduction of the Saxons, in great numbers, in 1826,
many of which were excessively diminutive and diseased, and
their indiscriminate use with our pure-bred Merinoes, was a
serious interruption to the career of improvement in many of
our flocks. Their mixture with the best Saxons was no
further detrimental, than to reduce the quantity of fleece, and,
to a certain extent, lessen the peculiar hardiness of the
original Transhumantes, which had been fully preserved by
their descendants in this country. The use of well-selected
Saxon rams with Merino flocks, was extensively practised, and
it is still persisted in by many intelligent flock-masters, after
twenty years’ experience, who are satisfied that they find
it for their interest to continue this style of breeding. The
animals being smaller, consume less; and they probably produce
a quantity of wool in proportion to their food, which,
from its improved and uniform quality, commands a higher
price in the market. Wherever they are not sufficiently
hardy, they can be bred back towards the Spanish Merino
standard, by the use of some of the stouter rams. Their
natures are intrinsically the same. They are only divergent
streams from the same original fountain, and when again
united, they readily coalesce and flow onwards, without violence
or disorder.

The Merino, as might reasonably have been anticipated,
when properly managed, has improved from a variety of
causes. Though kept scrupulously pure in Spain, they were
seldom bred with that refinement of taste or nice judgment,
which distinguishes the accomplished modern breeder. Their
management was too entirely intrusted to ignorant shepherds
or careless agents, to secure that close attention which is essential
to improvement. The sheep had to perform a journey
of several hundred miles twice in a year, to and from their
distant Sierras; and it was absolutely essential that strong
animals should be selected for breeding; and to secure this
object, those were frequently used which were deficient in
the most profitable qualities. They were also closely bred
in-and-in, seldom or never departing from a particular flock
to procure a fresh cross. Their wild, nomadic life, approaching
nearly to that of their natural state, and their peculiarly[Pg 103]
healthful pasturage, alone prevented a serious deterioration
from this cause.

When brought into the United States, the flocks were soon
mingled with each other, and for many years past, probably,
not an unmixed descendant of any distinct original flock could
be traced. Abundance of appropriate food has been given
them, without the labor of long and fatiguing journeys; and
lastly, there has been much care used in the selection of the
most profitable animals for breed. The spirit of improvement
has been recently awakened to this important branch of
American husbandry, and as we already have all the elements
within ourselves for its attainment, if not arrested by any untoward
national policy, it will soon result in giving us numerous
flocks of as choice sheep as the world affords.

Peculiarities of the Merino.

The prominent peculiarities of the Merino, are the abundance
and fineness of its fleece; the tenacity with which it is held;
its crimped or spiral form; its felting properties; and the excessive
quantity of yolk, giving to it that softness which distinguishes
it from all others. Their large horns are common
to several other varieties. Their hoofs are sometimes singularly
long, reaching 8 or 10 inches when allowed to grow. The
horns, hoofs, and wool scarcely differ in their chemical constituents;
and the peculiar development of the two former, is
justly considered as an additional evidence of their wool-bearing
properties.

The yolk, in most of the sheep, forms, with the dust which
adheres to it, a firm crust on the exterior, and together with
the compactness of the fleece, it offers considerable resistance
to the open hand on being pressed, giving the impression of
rigidity. This outer covering repels the rain, the snow, and
the wind like a coat of mail, thus fitting the Merino to endure
exposure beyond any other sheep. On opening the crust,
the wool is found of a brilliant, golden hue, sparkling with
yolk, and firmly held together in masses, hardly distinguishable
from the cocoon of the silk-worm. The wool closely
covers every part of the body, and frequently the entire legs
and head, excepting a part of the face. Still another peculiarity
of the Merino is its longevity. They attain a great age
when properly managed, and, in healthy localities, sometimes
breed till 20 years of age.

The Merino may be described, generally, as a small-boned,[Pg 104]
closely made, medium-sized sheep, varying from 80 lbs. of
live weight, for a small ewe, to 160 lbs. for good-sized wethers
and rams, in ordinary condition. They are light in the shoulders
and chest, and altogether are more deficient in form than the
best mutton sheep. This apparent difference is materially
lessened when both are denuded of their fleece; as the longer
pile of the latter covers defects, which would manifest themselves
under the closer covering of the Merino. Yet, with
this seeming deficiency, Young found, in feeding the Merino
and Bakewell, that the latter ate the most, and gained the
least, in the ratio of two to three. We give the statement as
we find it, though it apparently contravenes a fundamental
principle, which a knowledge of all the circumstances of the
trial, the peculiarities of the particular animals, &c., might
probably explain satisfactorily.

The mutton is excellent, and it is probably not surpassed by
that of any other sheep. Lord Somerville claims it as a rule,
that the quality of the flesh in each class of sheep follows
that of the wool, and that the flesh of the short and fine-woolled
sheep is closer in the grain and more highly flavored
than the long-woolled. Sir Joseph Banks says, the London
butchers, after having some of the Merinoes, eagerly sought for
more, from its popularity with their best customers; and it is
certain that the flavor of our mountain-fed Merino does not
suffer in comparison with the choicest breeds.

Breeding Merinoes.

The general principles of breeding cattle and sheep, as laid
down by the most approved authorities, must be taken with
some exceptions, when applied to the Merino. Good form
and feeding qualities are desirable in this breed, but they are
not as essential as with the others. Wool is the great object,
and if this be sufficiently fine, even, and abundant, something
may be abated in the perfection of form. Early maturity, so
much sought after in the mutton sheep, cannot be reconciled
with the great longevity, and the prolonged productive powers
of the Merino. We must content ourselves, therefore, with
slowly engrafting such improvements on the breed, as can be
effected without prejudice to his other good qualities, and look
to his crosses with others for such qualities as are irreconcilable
with his nature.

It is considered indispensable to the improvement of the
Merino, that it be not bred too young. A vigorous ewe may[Pg 105]
bring her first lamb at two years old, but it is better that it be
deferred till three. The ram should never be used till his
second year, and then but sparingly. From 2½ to 6 years
old is deemed the most vigorous age, though many may be
safely used till 8 or 10, and occasionally later. Both ewes
and rams have been known to breed till 20 years old.

The ram should be large, stout, and well made, carrying
his weight as compactly as possible. The nose should be
convex; the face covered with a soft velvety hair; the eye
lively and prominent; the veins near the lachrymal glands, of a
clear red; the horns rough; short neck; pendent dewlap not
objectionable; full chest; broad shoulders; broad, level back;
large quarters; tail large and well set up; good legs, and
sound hoofs; with a firm, easy, regular gait; the head
carried high, with a look of boldness and decision, without in
any degree approaching to wildness or ferocity.

The ewe should possess these characteristics generally, with
such modifications as are suited to the sex. Great care should
be taken to breed from such as are most perfect in all the
essential points of constitution, form, and size; and weight,
uniformity, and fineness of fleece. The closest observation is
requisite, to select the best in all respects.

In-and-in breeding should be avoided where practicable,
which can be done where there is a careful registry of the
sheep through successive generations. Excessive use of rams
can never be permitted without decided injury to them and
their progeny. In Spain, four rams are supplied to every
hundred ewes. This limited number is proper enough, where
they undergo so much fatigue in travelling, and kept too, as
they are, entirely on grass. But if moderately grained before
and during their use, and especially if kept up, and allowed to
serve the ewes once only, as they come in heat, this number
may be largely increased. A vigorous ram will suffice for 35
to 40 ewes, when running with the flock; yet his powers would
not be more taxed by double or even treble this number, if
admitted to each but once. Bread is a convenient food for
the ram while running with the sheep. If he is gentle, which
he should always be, he will come up readily and eat from the
hand, without exciting the attention of the other sheep, which
crowd, and not unfrequently injure each other when grain is
placed before him; or he may be stabled at night and fed
with grain.

If young ewes have stolen lambs, they should be taken
away immediately after yeaning, and the nourishment supplied[Pg 106]
to the lamb from the milk of a cow. The tax of nursing is
nearly equal to that of gestation, and farther injury to the dam
may be avoided by this practice. Merino ewes have had the
reputation of being indifferent nurses in Spain. This is owing
to their fatigue in travelling, and scanty pasturage, rather than
to any constitutional deficiency. It is a frequent practice
there, to kill a part of the lambs, and put one on to two ewes.
This has never been found necessary in the countries where
they have been transplanted, as generous feed for the dams
has invariably been found entirely adequate to their support
of the young.

The localities in which Merino Sheep can be profitably kept in
the United States,

Are wherever the pastures are sweet and dry; the climate
not excessively hot; and the land not too valuable for other
purposes. Wool is generally the great object in the sheep
husbandry of this country, and when sheep farms are remote
from the large markets, the Merino will make much the most
profitable returns. In the neighborhood of cities, where large
and fat sheep and early lambs bear a high price, the mutton
sheep may be substituted.

The South Down.

This valuable sheep has been known and bred for a long
time on the chalky downs of England, where it has always
maintained the character of a hardy animal, yielding a medium
quality of wool, and furnishing mutton of a superior flavor.
It was not, however, till within the last 70 years, that any
considerable attention was devoted to its improvement. Since
that period, its fine points have been remarkably developed,
which is shown in its improved size and form, and its early
maturity and productiveness. The late Mr. John Ellman, of
England, was the first who took them thoroughly in hand; and
so eminent was his success, that he founded a flock which has
been the source whence all the best blood has been since
derived.

Fig. 23.

South Down Buck.

The form and characteristics of the South Downs.

His criteria of a good South Down, are as follows:—”The
head small and hornless; the face speckled or gray, and neither
too long nor too short. The lips thin, and the space[Pg 107]
between the nose and the eyes narrow. The under jaw, or
chap, fine and thin; the ears tolerably wide, and well covered
with wool, and the forehead also, and the whole space between
the ears well protected by it, as a defence against the fly.
The eye full and bright, but not prominent. The orbits of the
eye—the eye-cap, or bone,—not too projecting, that it may
not form a fatal obstacle in lambing. The neck of a medium
length, thin towards the head, but enlarging towards the
shoulders, where it should be broad and high, and straight in
its whole course above and below. The breast should be wide,
deep, and projecting forwards between the fore-legs, indicating
a good constitution, and a disposition to thrive. Corresponding
with this, the shoulders should be on a level with the back,
and not too wide above; they should bow outward from the
top to the breast, indicating a springing rib beneath, and
leaving room for it. The ribs coming out horizontally from
the spine, and extending far backward, and the last rib pro[Pg 108]jecting
more than the others; the back flat from the shoulders
to the setting on of the tail; the loin broad and flat; the rump
long and broad, and the tail set on high and nearly on a level
with the spine. The hips wide; the space between them and
the last rib on either side as narrow as possible, and the ribs,
generally, presenting a circular form like a barrel. The belly
as straight as the back. The legs neither too long nor too
short. The fore-legs straight from the breast to the foot; not
bending inward at the knee, and standing far apart both before
and behind; the hocks having a direction rather outward, and
the twist, or the meeting of the thighs behind, being particularly
full; the bones fine, yet having no appearance of weak[Pg 109]ness,
and of a speckled or dark color. The belly well defended
with wool, and the wool coming down before and behind to
the knee, and to the hock; the wool short, close, curled, and
fine, and free from spiry projecting fibres.”

Fig. 24.

South Down Ewe.

Other breeders have commenced where Ellman left off, and
have apparently pushed their improvement to its utmost capacity;
and especially has this been done by Messrs. Grantham
and Webb, the latter of whom, while preserving all the essential
merits of the sheep, has carried the live weight of
breeding rams to 250 lbs., and well-fattened wethers to 200
lbs. dressed weight. Many of the choicest animals have been
imported into this country, and they are now to be found, in
limited numbers, in almost every state of the Union.

The wool was formerly short, and used only for cloths, flannels,
&c. It has been considerably lengthened in many of the
late flocks, and with the improvements in the combing machinery,
is now much used in England as a combing wool.
The quantity produced is nearly equal to that of the Merino
flocks when well kept, varying, according to the size and style
of breeding, from 3 to 4 lbs. of clean washed wool, which in
quality does not differ materially from half-blood Merino, and
sometimes rather exceeds it. The larger animals, of course,
produce fleeces of much greater weight, sometimes reaching
to 8 or 9 lbs. The South Down will subsist on short pasture,
but well repays full feeding. It attains early maturity, is hardy
and prolific, frequently producing two at a birth. Like all
highly-improved English breeds, it is not a long-lived sheep.
It may be considered in its prime at three. The wethers may
be fattened at 18 to 30 months, and the ewes at 3 to 5 years,
when first required as breeders. The last are sometimes allowed
to come in with a lamb at a year, but they cannot be
sustained in vigor if put to breeding before two.

The Cheviot

Is thus described by Blacklock: “They have a bare head,
with a long jaw and white face, but no horns. Sometimes
they have a shade of gray upon the nose, approaching to dark
at the tip; at others, a tinge of lemon color on the face, but
these markings scarcely affect their value. The legs are clean,
long, and small-boned, and covered with wool to the hough,
but there is a sad want of depth at the breast, and of breadth
both there and on the chine. A fat carcass weighs from 12
lbs. to 18 lbs. per quarter, and a medium fleece about 3 lbs[Pg 110].
The purest specimens of this breed are to be found on the
Scotch side of the Cheviot hills, and on the high and stony
mountain farms which lie between that range and the sources
of the Teviot. These sheep are a capital mountain stock, provided
the pasture resembles the Cheviot hills, in containing a
good proportion of rich herbage.”

They are eminently adapted to high lands and a severe climate,
though less so than the Black-faced or Heath sheep of
Scotland. They have become an American sheep, by their
repeated introduction into this country. A late importation
of several choice sheep was made by Mr. Carmichael of New
York. The wool on these is from 5 to 7 inches long, coarse,
but well suited to combing. Like the Downs, it has heretofore
been classed among the middle-wools, but these specimens
would seem to indicate that they are verging towards the long-wools.

The Bakewell or Leicester, the Cotswold and Lincolnshire,

Possess several qualities in common, and it is only a practiced
eye that can readily detect the difference. This resemblance
arises from a recent, common origin. They are all
large and hornless; of a pure white; with long, coarse, and
heavy fleeces; excellent mutton sheep; coming early to maturity,
and capable of carrying enormous quantities of fat.
There have been from time immemorial numerous flocks of
these large, coarse-woolled sheep, existing in certain parts of
England, under a variety of names, and partaking of some
slight peculiarity of features, according to the district in which
they are bred. Thus, besides those above-mentioned, there
were the Teeswater, the Romney-Marsh, the Kentish, the
Bampton, the Exmoor, &c., all of which were deficient in form,
slow-feeders, and late in coming to maturity.

Improvement of the Long-Wools.

The late Robert Bakewell first commenced a decided improvement
with the Leicesters, nearly a century since. He
began by selecting the choicest sheep in England, which possessed
the essential qualities; and by judicious feeding and
management throughout, he soon brought them up to a character
widely differing from the original with which he started.
So eminent was his success, that in 1787 he let three rams,
for a single season, for 1250 pounds, (about $6,200,) and was
offered 1050 pounds (about $5,200) for 20 ewes. Soon after[Pg 111]
this, he received the enormous price of 800 guineas, or $4,000,
for the use of two-thirds of a ram for one season, reserving the
other third for himself.

Fig. 25.

Long-wool Buck.

He reduced the bone and offal or worthless parts of the carcass,
and increased the weight of the valuable parts, and especially[Pg 112]
their tendency to fatten and early maturity. This
was effected mainly by a nice discrimination, which has probably
never been surpassed, if it has ever been equalled. He
selected medium sizes for the breed, with as much evenness
and perfection of form as possible, for he found that excellence
and profitable feeding qualities were seldom connected with
extra size, large bones, or imperfect form. He also observed
the disposition to fatten in individuals, and used only such as
were conspicuous in this respect. He relied more than all
upon their quality of handling well, depending even more upon
the elastic, mellow touch, than upon the most symmetrical
figure. He used only the choicest rams, a little under size,
while the ewes were of full medium weight. The progeny
were pushed with a full supply of nutritious food, and systematically
brought to early maturity.

Connected with this, was his practice of in-and-in breeding,
or breeding the parent upon the progeny, for several successive
generations, which had the tendency still further to refine
the bone and offal, and impress most effectually the desirable
characteristics of the race. It is even credibly asserted, that
he produced rot in such of his fattening sheep as he wished
to mature early for the shambles, as in the first stages of that
loathsome disease the fat-secreting organs accomplish their
office more rapidly than in a state of perfect health; and it at
least secured them against breeding when they left his own
hands. It is certain, that Bakewell carried his refining system
to such an extent, as partially to destroy the procreative
powers; and he was subsequently obliged to introduce new
animals, to reinvigorate and continue his flock.

The general system of Bakewell, however, was attended
with complete success. He produced a race of animals, not
only far beyond what England had ever before seen, but
which, in all the qualities he endeavored to establish, have not
been since exceeded; and his improved Leicesters have come
down to the present day as perfect as he left them, showing
conclusively, that he not only formed, but stamped the peculiarities
of the breed, with a permanence which yet bears
witness to his genius. One of these attained the enormous
live weight of 368 lbs., and dressed 248 lbs.

The Cotswold and Lincolnshire.

Other breeders were not slow in following in Bakewell’s
footsteps with different breeds, and the Cotswold and Lincoln[Pg 113]shire
especially, have become the subjects of an equally decided
improvement, while the errors of Bakewell were entirely
avoided. They possess a rather more desirable robustness,
approaching, in some few specimens, almost to coarseness, as
compared with the finest Leicesters; but they are more hardy
and less liable to disease. They attain as large a size, and
yield as great an amount of wool, of about the same value.
These breeds scarcely differ more from each other, than do
flocks of a similar variety, which have been separately bred
for several generations. They are prolific, and when well fed,
the ewes will frequently produce two lambs at a birth, for
which they provide liberally from their udder till the time for
weaning. The weight of the fleece varies from 4 to 8 lbs. per
head.

Peculiarity of long Wool and its Uses.

The striking peculiarity of the long-wools, is in the production
of a fleece, which is perfectly adapted, by its length and
the absence of the felting property, to the manufacture of
worsted stuffs, bombazines, mousseline de laines, &c. This is
a branch of manufactures, for which we had little material
that was suitable, till the introduction of the long-wools; and
its rapid extension in the United States, within the past few
years, clearly shows that a large and increasing demand for
this kind of wool will continue at remunerating prices. Besides
its uses for combing, it is extensively manufactured into
blankets, carpeting, and many other fabrics.

Importation of Long-Wools.

Several of the Bakewells were imported during the last century;
and many flocks, containing some of the best specimens,
have been introduced and scattered over every section of the
country. The largest of any single importation of the long-wools,
was made by Messrs. Corning & Sotham, in 1842, and
immediately preceding, and consisted of 70 or 80 choice Cotswolds.

Breeding the Long-Wools.

Some information on this subject will be found under the
head of breeding Merinoes, and improvement of the Long-Wools.
The ram and ewe should be selected from the best specimens
of the breed which is to be perpetuated. There are peculiarities
of form or appearance in each, which should be carefully[Pg 114]
observed. A violent cross should never be permitted for the
purpose of perpetuation, as suggested under the head of principles
of breeding, in a previous chapter; such as between those
possessing totally opposite properties, as the Merino and long-wools;
and there is no conceivable advantage in mixing the
middle-wools, South Downs, &c., with either.

Lord Western has long experimented on the blending of
the Merino and long-wools, through several generations, without
any well-defined results, nor is it believed to be attainable.
There is no evenness or integrity of character, either in the
animal or fleece, from such mixtures; nor is it possible to
foretel the character of progeny from these bastard crosses.
The general rule, that like begets like, will not hold true here,
for the animal comes large or small, with a long or short
fleece, fine or coarse, or intermixed; and this, too, is repeated
through numerous generations, when the immediate parents
exhibit properties altogether unlike the offspring, and which
they derive from some remote ancestry. This practice will do
to produce lambs for the butcher, as the consequence of a
fresh cross is greater stamina and thrift; and it is found that
lambs thus bred attain an early and full development. Thousands
of such are annually bred on the banks of the Hudson,
Long Island, and around our large cities, and in the worst
possible way, as the large, coarse ram is used on the delicate
Saxon ewe; yet the lambs thrive and command a good price
in the market, and the owner is satisfied to pocket the result.
But nothing could be more absurd than to propagate from
such progeny for any other purpose than to make early and
profitable mutton.

The mixture of breeds of similar character, is attended with
the best consequences. Such was the intermingling of the
improved Leicesters with the Cotswold and Lincolnshire, by
which their former coarseness was removed; and such was the
use of the latter with the Leicesters, when they became impotent
and almost worthless, from over-refinement in breeding.
Good results have followed the mixture of the South and
Hampshire Downs. A marked improvement in the Merino in
this country, has been claimed by Mr. Jarvis and several
others, from the mixture of the various flocks, which for ages
had been kept distinct in Spain; and the same result is known
to have followed a similar course with the Rambouillet and
Saxon flocks.[Pg 115]

The ewe goes with young

About five months, varying from 145 to 162 days. Each
flock-master will of course determine what is the proper lambing
time. For early market, or when there are few sheep,
and those well looked after, the lambs may come while the
ewes are in the yards, and provision can be made for them,
by placing such as are heavy in warm stalls. Both the dam
and young thus receive a closer attention than they would in
the field; and after a week’s housing, in severe weather, the
lamb may be turned out into the dry yard, where he will
suffer no more, apparently, than the full-grown sheep.

But with large flocks, early lambing is attended with much
trouble, and it is generally avoided, by deferring it till the
weather has become more settled, and a full bite of grass will
afford the dam a plentiful supply of milk. Yet in this case,
the young sheep must daily be under the eye of the shepherd,
who should see that they are well supplied with food, and especially
that they are brought under cover, in severe or stormy
weather.

A ram will serve from 20 to 100 ewes in a season, according
to his age, health, feed, and management. A South Down or
long-woolled lamb, of 7 or 8 months, is sometimes used; and
when this is done, he should be well fed, and allowed to run
only with a very few ewes. If full-grown rams are turned
into a lean pasture to remain with the ewes, not less than four
should be put in for every hundred. But if a well-fed ram,
in full health and vigor, is kept up, and led out to the ewe as
she comes into heat, and allowed to serve her once only, he
will suffice for one hundred, without injury to himself or progeny.
For this purpose, the ram should be prepared, not by
being fat, for this, neither he nor the ewe should ever be; but
by being fed with grain for a short time before, and during
the continuance of the season. The ewes are more likely to
come quickly into heat, and prove prolific, if lightly fed with
stimulating food at the time.

It is reasonably enough conjectured, that if procreation, and
the first period of gestation, takes place in cold weather, the
fœtus will subsequently be fitted for the climate, which rules
during the early stages of its existence. If this be so, and it
is certainly in accordance with the laws of nature, fine-woolled
sheep are most likely to maintain their excellence, by deferring
the connection of the male till the commencement of cold
weather; and in the Northern states, this is done about the[Pg 116]
first of December, which brings the yeaning time in the last
of April or first of May, when the early grass will afford a
large supply and good quality of feed.

Winter Management and Food.

Sheep should be brought into winter-quarters soon after the
severe frosts occur, as these diminish the feed, and materially
impair its nutritious qualities. They ought also to be removed
from the grass-lands, before they become permanently softened
by the rains, as they will injuriously affect their comfort
and health; and allowing them to remain is equally objectionable,
from their poaching the sod. If the number be large
when brought to the yards, they must be divided into flocks
of 50 to 100, according to the size of the yards and sheds.
The young and feeble ought to be separated from the others,
and the ailing ones placed by themselves; and that no one
may suffer from the others, all should be classed as uniformly
as possible as to strength. The yards must be dry, well supplied
with a trough of fresh water, and with comfortable
sheds, to which they can retire when they choose.

Shelters.

These, in northern climates, are indispensable to profitable
sheep-raising, and in every latitude north of the Gulf of
Mexico they would be advantageous. There is policy as
well as humanity in the practice. An animal eats much less
when thus protected; he is more thrifty, less liable to disease,
and his manure is richer and more abundant. The feeding
may be done in the open yard in clear weather, and under
cover in severe storms. The shelters for sheep are variously
constructed, to suit the taste or circumstances of the flock-master.
A sheep-barn, built upon a side hill, will afford two
floors; one underneath, surrounded by three sides of wall,
should open to the south, with sliding or swinging doors to
guard against storms; and another may be provided above,
if the floors are perfectly tight, with proper gutters to carry
off the urine; and sufficient storage for the fodder can be
furnished by scaffolds overhead. Or they may be constructed
with twelve or fifteen feet posts on level ground, allowing
the sheep to occupy the lower part, with the fodder stored
above.

In all cases, however, thorough ventilation should be provided,
for of the two evils of exposure to cold or too great[Pg 117]
privation of air, the former is to be preferred. Sheep cannot
long endure close confinement without injury. In all ordinary
weather, a shed closely boarded on three sides, with a tight
roof, is sufficient protection; especially, if the open side is
shielded from bleak winds, or leads into a well-enclosed yard.
If the floors above are used for storage, they should be made
tight, that no hay, chaff, or dust can fall upon the fleece.

Racks or Mangers.

These are indispensable to economical feeding. If the hay
is fed on the ground, the leaves and seeds, the most valuable
part of the fodder, are almost wholly lost; and when wet, the
sheep, in their restlessness while feeding, will tread much of
it into the mud. To make an economical box or rack, take
six light pieces of scantling, say three inches square, one for
each corner, and one for the centre of each side. Boards of
pine or hemlock, 12 or 15 feet long and 12 or 14 inches
wide, may then be nailed on to the bottom of the posts for
the sides, which are separated by similar boards at the ends,
2½ feet long. Boards 12 inches wide, raised above the lower
ones by a space of 9 to 12 inches, are nailed on the sides
and ends, which completes the rack. The edges of the
opening should be made perfectly smooth, to prevent chafing
or tearing out the wool. The largest dimensions above given,
are suitable for the large breeds, and the smallest for the
Saxon, and still smaller are proper for their lambs. These
should be set on dry ground, or under the sheds, and they
can easily be removed wherever necessary.

Some prefer the racks made with slats, or smooth, upright
sticks, in the form of the usual horse-rack. There is no objection
to this, but it should always be accompanied by a
board trough affixed to the bottom, to catch the fine hay
which falls in feeding. These may be attached to the side of
a building, or used double. A small lamb requires fifteen
inches of space, and a large sheep two feet, for quiet, comfortable
feeding; and at least this amount of room should be
provided around the racks for every sheep.

Troughs.

They may be variously constructed. The most economical
are made with two boards of any convenient length, ten to
twelve inches wide. Nail the lower side of one upon the
edge of the other, fastening both into a two or three inch[Pg 118]
plank, fifteen inches long and a foot wide, notched in its upper
edge in the form required.

Food.

There is no better food for sheep, than well-ripened, sound,
timothy hay; though the clovers, and nearly all the cultivated
grasses, may be advantageously fed. Bean and pea straw
are valuable, and especially the former, which, if properly
cured, they prefer to the best hay; and it is well adapted to
the production of wool. All the other straws furnish a good
food, and sheep will thrive on them without hay, when fed
with roots or grain.

Roots ought to be given them occasionally for a change,
and especially to the ewes after lambing, if this occurs before
putting them on to fresh pasture. They keep the stomach
properly distended, the appetite and general health good; and
they render their winter forage nearly equal to their summer
feed.

Much grain is not suited to store-sheep. It is too rich, and
should be given sparingly except to the lambs, the old ewes, or
feeble sheep, or to restore the rams after hard service. For the
above purposes, oats are the best; and if any other grain,
beans or peas are given, it should be in small quantities.
When there is a deficiency of hay and roots, grain may be
used with straw.

The flock ought to be so fed as to receive the same amount
of nourishment throughout every part of the year. The evenness
and value of the fleece depends much upon this. When
the amount of nutrition is great, the wool-secreting organs are
distended, and the fibre becomes enlarged; when limited, they
necessarily contract, and the fibre is small. This produces a
want of trueness, which the experienced stapler readily detects,
and which he does not fail to estimate against the value of the
fleece.

Sheep ought to have a full supply of salt, and if accessible,
sulphur, ashes, tar, and clay would frequently be nibbled by
them when their stomach required either. Pine or hemlock
boughs are a good substitute for tar, and afford a most healthful
change in the winter-food of sheep. Entire cleanliness
and dryness are also essential to the health of the flock. The
smaller sizes of the Saxon may be well sustained on two
pounds of hay, but larger sheep will consume from three and
a half to four, or even five pounds per day. Sheep, like all[Pg 119]
other animals when exposed to cold, will consume much more
than if well protected, or than during a warmer season.

The Care of the Ewes with Young

Is an important consideration, as the lamb is sometimes the
only profit yielded by the flock; for when fodder is high, or
wool low, the fleece will barely pay for the food and attention.
Pregnant ewes require the same food as at all other times;
but caution is necessary to prevent injury or abortion, which is
often the result of excessive fat, feebleness, or disease. The
first may be remedied by blood-letting and spare diet; and
both the last by restored health and generous food. Sudden
fright, as from dogs or strange objects; long or severe journeys;
great exertions; unwholesome food; blows in the region of the
fœtus, and some other causes, produce abortion.

Yeaning.

Most flocks are turned into the pasture before yeaning time,
and the ewe is then left to nature, which is a good practice, if
she is healthy and the weather good. But a larger number of
lambs will be reared by a careful oversight of the ewes, and
the use of proper precautions. As their time approaches,
which may be known by the springing of the udder and the
enlargement of the natural parts, they should be put by themselves
at night, in a warm stable or with others in the same
condition, and well looked after, late and early in the day.

They seldom need any assistance, nor should any be rendered,
except in case of wrong presentation, or feebleness in expelling
the fœtus. In the former case, the shepherd may
apply his thumb and finger, after oiling, to push back the
young, and assist in gently turning it till the nose and fore-feet
appear and for the latter, only the slightest aid should be
rendered, and that to help the throes of the dam.

Management of Lambs.

When lambing in the field, only a few should be together,
as the young sometimes get changed, and the dams refuse to
own them. This difficulty is generally obviated, by holding
the ewe till the lamb has sucked two or three times; or they
may be shut up together, and the lamb rubbed with a little
fine salt. The lamb does not require nourishment for some hours[Pg 120]
after its birth; but if the dam refuse to lick it as soon as it
appears, it must be carefully wiped dry. If the weather be
cold and the lamb is dropped in the field, the shepherd should
be furnished with large pockets or a well-lined basket, in
which it must be placed till the ewe is brought to the shed.

After the first day or two, the udders ought to be completely
drained of their milk by the hand, so as to prevent
swollen or caked bag. In case of deficiency of milk, the lamb
may be supplied from a new milch cow, by means of a sucking-bottle
with an air vent, or it may draw a part of its nourishment
from another ewe, which can be held while the lamb is
sucking.

It is sometimes necessary to substitute a foster-mother, in
which case, the ewe may be made to own the lamb, by milking
from her udder over the lamb and under his tail, rubbing
it on well; or rub the adopted lamb with the entrails and contents
of the stomach of the dead lamb, or cover it with the
skin. If the ewe proves a bad nurse, or it is desirable to
bring the lambs forward rapidly, they may be early taught to
eat boiled oats or other grain, cabbage, roots, and tender
hay. Lambs should be well fed, as this is important to produce
size, constitution, and perfection of form.

The ewes and their young ought to be divided into small
flocks, and have a frequent change of pasture. Some careful
shepherds adopt the plan of confining their lambs, and allow
them to suck two or three times a day; by which they suffer
no fatigue, and thrive much faster. But this is troublesome
and injurious, as the exercise is essential to the health and
constitution of the lamb intended for rearing. It is admissible
only when they are wanted for an early market, and by those
who rear them for this purpose, it is a common practice.

Castrating and Docking Lambs.

After selecting enough of the choicest rams for stock-getters,
the castrating may be performed at any time between
two and six weeks old, when the lamb is in good health. A
cool day should be chosen; or if warm, it must be done early
in the morning. The best method is for one person to hold
the lamb firmly between his legs, on an inclined plank upon
which he rests, while another with a sharp knife cuts off about
two-thirds of the lower part of the scrotum. The testicles are
then drawn out till the spermatic cord is reached, which is
divided by the thumb nail; or it is pulled out and cut with a[Pg 121]
sharp knife. It is sometimes done by simply opening the scrotum,
when the testicles and spermatic cord are jerked out.
The wound should then be rinsed with cold water, after which
apply lard.

The operation of docking is by many deferred till a late period,
from apprehension of too much loss of blood; but if the
weather be favorable, and the lamb in good condition, it may
be performed at this time with the least trouble and without
injury. The tail should be laid upon the plank, the person
holding him in the same position as before. With one hand
he draws the skin towards the body, while the other person,
with a two-inch chisel and mallet, strikes it off at a blow, between
the bone joints, leaving it one and a half to two inches
long. The skin immediately slips back over the wound and is
soon healed. Ewe lambs should be docked closer than the
rams. To prevent flies and maggots, and assist in healing, it
is well to apply an ointment composed of lard and tar, in the
proportions of four pounds of the former to one quart of the
latter. This is also a good application for the scrotum. The
lambs should be carefully protected from cold and wet till they
are perfectly well.

Tagging, or Clatting,

Is the removal of such wool as is liable to get fouled, when
the sheep are turned on to the fresh pastures, and of course
it should be done just before leaving their winter quarters. It
is most easily accomplished by placing the animal on a low
table, and then holding it as in shearing, till the operation is
performed. All the wool near the extremity of the sheath,
and the scrotum of the males; from the udder of the ewes;
and from below the dock, the inside of the thighs, and the legs
of the sheep, should be removed.

Summer Management.

As soon as the warm weather approaches, and the grass
appears, sheep become restive and impatient for the pasture.
This instinct should be repressed till the ground has become
thoroughly dry, and the grass has acquired substance. They
ought, moreover, to be provided for the change of food, by
the daily use of roots for a few days before turning out. It
would also check the tendency to excessive purging, which is
induced by the first spring feed, if they were housed at night,
and fed for the first few days with a little sound, sweet hay.[Pg 122]
They must be provided with pure water, salt, &c., as in winter,
for though they may sometimes do tolerably well without
either, yet thrift and freedom from disease are cheaply secured
by this slight attention.

Dry, sweet pastures, and such as abound in aromatic and
bitter plants, are best suited for sheep-walks. No animal,
with the exception of the goat, crops so great a variety of
plants. They eat many which are rejected by the horse and
the ox, and which are even essential to their own wants. In
this respect, they are valuable assistants to the husbandman,
as they feed greedily on wild mustard, burdocks, thistles,
marsh-mallows, milkweed, and various other offending plants;
and the Merino exceeds the more recent breeds in the variety
of his selections.

Many prepare artificial pastures for their flocks. This may
be done with a number of plants. Winter rye, or wheat sown
early in the season, may be fed off in the fall, without injury
to the crop; and in the following spring, the rye may be pastured
till the stalks shoot up and begin to form a head. This
affords an early and nutritious food. Corn may be sown
broadcast, or thickly in drills, and either fed off in the fields,
or cut and carried to the sheep in their folds. White mustard
is a valuable crop for this purpose.

To give sheep sufficient variety, it would be better to divide
their range into smaller ones, and change them as often at
least as once a week. They seek a favorite resting-place, on a
dry, elevated part of the field, which soon becomes soiled. By
removing them from this for a few days, rains will cleanse,
or the sun dry it, so as again to make it suitable for them.
More sheep may be kept, and in better condition, where this
practice is adopted, than where they are confined to the same
pasture.

Washing Sheep.

In most of that portion of the Union north of 40°, the
washing is performed from the middle of May till the first of
June, according to the season and climate. When the streams
are hard, which is frequently the case in limestone regions, it
is better to do this immediately after an abundant rain, by
which the lime derived from the springs is proportionally
lessened. The practice of a large majority of our farmers, is
to drive their sheep to the washing-ground early in the morning
on a warm day, leaving the lambs behind. The sheep are
confined on the bank of the stream by a temporary enclosure;[Pg 123]
from which they are taken, and if not too heavy, are carried
into water sufficiently deep to prevent their touching bottom.
They are then washed, by gently squeezing the fleece with the
hands, after which they are led ashore, and as much of the
water pressed out as possible before letting them go, as the
great weight retained in the wool frequently staggers and
throws them down.

A good practice is to lead the sheep into the water and saturate
the fleece, after which they are taken ashore. When
they commence steaming, they are again led into the water,
and washed clean. This insures thorough cleansing, where
the water is pure. Others make use of a boat, one end of
which rests on a bold shore, and the other is in deep water.
The operator stands in the boat and plunges the animal over
the side, when the washing is performed. It is sometimes
done by sinking a tight hogshead or large box in the water,
with heavy weights, in which a man stands, and the sheep are
brought or led to him by another person, who walks on a platform
reaching from the bank to the hogshead. Either of the
last methods obviates the necessity of standing for a long
time in water, by which colds, rheumatism, &c. are frequently
contracted. In parts of Germany, and sometimes in this
country, sheep are forced to swim across a narrow stream
several times, by which the fleece is tolerably cleaned, if all
the water be pressed out when they get to the land. The yolk
being a saponaceous compound, and not an oily matter as is
generally supposed, it readily combines with the water and
passes out of the wool.

An excellent practice, when streams are not convenient, is
to lead a small ripple of soft water into a tub. To this, a little
soap is added, after which the sheep are immersed and thoroughly
cleansed. Perfect whiteness and purity of the fleece
is readily secured afterwards, by throwing over the sheep a
jet of water. This practice has a good effect, in preventing
or removing cutaneous disorders, and destroying ticks or other
vermin.

Many judicious farmers object to washing sheep, from its
tendency to produce colds and catarrhal affections, to which
sheep are particularly subject; but it cannot well be dispensed
with, as the wool is always more saleable, and if carefully
done, need not be attended with injury. Warm settled weather,
however, is indispensable to washing with safety to the
general health of the sheep.[Pg 124]

Fig. 26 shows a ewe, with lines indicating the usual method
of sorting wool; number 1 indicating the refina or picklock;
2 and 3, the second and third qualities.

Fig. 26.

Wool Sorting

Shearing.

The manner of shearing varies with almost every district;
but as this is an art to be acquired under a skilful master, we
shall omit particular details on the subject. First clip all the
tags and filth, if any remains or has been accumulated after
the tagging in the spring; then take off the fleece and spread
it with the outside uppermost on a smooth bench or table, and
push the wool carefully together, to render it more compact;
double the sides over to the centre; throw the clean loose
locks into the middle, and roll together from each end. This
makes a smooth, dense package, which is secured by passing
a stout twine one or more times around the sides and ends.
All the wool from the extremities, should be closely sheared[Pg 125]
and saved by itself, before dismissing the sheep, but not put
up with choice fleeces.

If wounds are made, which is sometimes the case with unskilful
operators, a mixture of tar and grease ought to be applied.
After shearing, such horns and hoofs as are likely to
be troublesome, should be sawed and pared.

The branding, or marking, is essential to distinguish them
from other flocks, and this is done on the shoulder, side, or
buttock. A brush or marking-iron is used for this purpose,
with paint made of lampblack, to which a little spirits of
turpentine is first added, and then diluted with linseed or
lard oil.

If the weather be cool, and especially, if severe storms occur
after washing or shearing, the flock should be housed. If
sultry, they should have a cool, shady retreat, where they will
be shielded from the flies and the heat. Blisters and permanent
injury to the skin and fleece, are frequently the result of
such exposure. Shade trees in their pastures, contribute much
to the comfort of sheep, when exposed to a blazing sun. A
close examination of the skin should be made at shearing, for
the detection of disease or vermin.

For remedies, see article diseases.

Smearing or Salving Sheep

Is a custom little practised in this country. For cold, elevated,
and bleak exposures, it may be necessary, and it is, therefore,
generally adopted in Scotland. The object is, to prevent
cutaneous diseases and vermin, and furnish additional warmth
and protection to the fleeces of such breeds as are deficient in
yolk. It is usually performed in the latter part of October,
but is sometimes done immediately after shearing.

The mixture or salve consists of tar and butter or grease, in
different proportions; 1 gallon of the former to 12, or sometimes
20 lbs. of the latter; the greater proportion of tar being
required for the younger sheep, or for more exposed situations.
The grease is melted over the fire, and the tar stirred in, and
when sufficiently cool, it is applied to the whole body of the
sheep, by carefully parting the wool and rubbing it on the
skin with the fingers. The above quantity is sufficient for 30
or 50 sheep, according to their size and the character of the
wool.

This application is not required for fine-woolled sheep,
whose fleeces are more appropriately protected by a natural[Pg 126]
secretion of yolk; and it is better to omit it in all cases, where
the health and comfort of the animal do not render it absolutely
essential. Mr. Stewart, an experienced Scotch shepherd,
uses only tallow and train oil, mixed in equal proportions. He
asserts, that the improvement in the growth and quality of the
wool is at least one-third, and it materially benefits the condition
of the sheep.

Weaning.

The lambs may be weaned from 3½ to 4 months old. They
should be put upon rich, sweet feed, but not too luxuriant;
while the dams are turned upon the poorest, and so remote
from their young, as to be out of sight and hearing. The
ewes ought to be carefully examined after a day or two, and
if necessary, the milk removed with the hand. If it continues
to accumulate, the ewe may be fed on hay for a few days.

When thoroughly dried off, they should have the best fare,
to enable them to recover condition for subsequent breeding
and wintering. The fall is a critical period to lose flesh, either
for sheep or lambs; and if any are found deficient, they should
be at once provided with extra feed and attention. If cold
weather overtakes them poor or in ill-health, they will scarcely
outlive it; or if by chance they survive, their emaciated carcass,
impaired constitution, and scant fleece, will ill repay the
food and attention they will have cost.

The time for taking Sheep from the Pastures.

This must depend on the state of the weather and food.
Severe frosts destroy much of the nutriment in the grasses, and
they soon after cease to afford adequate nourishment. Long
exposure to cold storms, with such food to sustain them, will
rapidly reduce their condition. The only safe rule is to transfer
them to their winter-quarters the first day they cease to
thrive abroad.

Drafting the Flock,

For the purpose of ridding it of the supernumeraries,
should be done at an earlier day. Such of the wethers as
have attained their prime, and those ewes that have passed it,
ought to be withdrawn soon after shearing, provided with the
best feed, and rapidly fitted for the shambles. If they have
been properly pushed on grass, they will be in good flesh by
the time they are taken from it; and if not intended for stall-feeding,
the sooner they are then disposed of the better.[Pg 127]

Stall-Feeding.

This will be lost on an ill-shaped, unthrifty beast. The
perfection of form and health, and the uniform good condition,
which characterize the thrifty one, indicate too plainly to be
misunderstood, those which will best repay the care of their
owner. The selection of any indifferent animal for stall-fattening,
whether cattle or sheep, will inevitably be attended
with loss. Such ought to be got rid of when first brought
from the pasture, for the most they will bring.

Management of Sheep for the Prairies.

When destined for the prairies, sheep ought to commence
their journey as early after shearing as possible. They are
then disencumbered of their fleece, and do not catch and retain
as much dust, as when driven later. Feed is also generally
better, and the roads are dry and hard. Young and
healthy sheep should be selected, with early lambs; or if the
latter are too young, and the distance great, they should be
left and the ewes dried off. A large wagon ought to accompany
the flock, to carry such as occasionally give out; or they
may be disposed of whenever they become enfeebled. With
good care, a hardy flock may be driven at the rate of 12 or
14 miles a day. Constant watchfulness is requisite, to keep
them healthy and in good plight. One-half the expense of
driving, may be saved by the use of well-trained shepherd-dogs.

When arrived at their destination, they must be thoroughly
washed, to free them from all dirt, and closely examined as to
any diseases they may have contracted, which, if discovered,
should be promptly removed. A variety of suitable food and
good shelter must be provided, for the autumn, winter, and
spring ensuing, and every necessary attention given them.
This would be necessary if indigenous to the country; how
much more so, when they have just undergone a campaign,
to which neither they nor their race have been accustomed!

Sheep cannot be kept on the prairies without much care,
artificial food, and proper attention; and from a false system
of economy, hitherto attempted by many, losses have occurred
from disease and mortality in the flocks, sufficient to have
made ample provision for the comfort and security of twice
the number lost. More especially do they require proper
food and attention, after the first severe frosts set in, which
wither and kill the natural grasses. By nibbling at the fog,[Pg 128]
(the frostbitten, dead grass,) they are inevitably subject to
constipation, which a bountiful supply of roots, sulphur, &c.,
is alone sufficient to remove.

Roots, grain, and good hay; straw, or corn-stalks, pea or
bean vines, are essential to the preservation of their health and
thrift during the winter, everywhere north of 39°. In summer,
the natural herbage is sufficient to sustain them in fine
condition, till they shall have acquired a denser population of
animals, when it will be found necessary to stock their meadows
with the best varieties of artificial grasses.

The prairies seem adapted to the usual varieties of sheep
introduced into the United States; and of such are the flocks
made up, according to the taste or judgment of the owners.
Shepherd-dogs are invaluable to the owners of flocks, in those
unfenced, illimitable ranges, both as a defence against the
small prairie-wolf, which prowls around the sheep, but which
are rapidly thinning off by the settlers; and also as assistants
to the shepherds in driving and herding their flocks on the
open ground.

DISEASES OF SHEEP.

The dry and healthful climate, the rolling surface, and the
sweet and varied herbage, which generally prevail in the
United States, insure perfect health to an originally sound and
well-selected flock, unless peculiarly exposed to disease. No
country is better suited to sheep, than most of the northern
and some of the southern parts of our own. In Europe, and
especially in England, where the system of management is
necessarily in the highest degree artificial, consisting frequently
in early and continued forcing the system, folding on
wet, plowed grounds, and the excessive use of that watery
food, the Swedes turnip, there are numerous and fatal diseases.
Hence the long list which lumbers the pages of foreign
writers on sheep.

The most destructive of these are the rot, and epidemics
which are scarcely known in America, except by report. The
diseases incident to our flocks may generally be considered as
casualties, rather than as inbred, or necessarily arising from
the quality of food, or from local causes. It may be safely
asserted, that with a dry pasture, well stocked with varied
and nutritious grasses; a clear, running stream; sufficient shade
and protection against severe storms; a constant supply of
salt, tar, and sulphur in summer; good hay, and sometimes[Pg 129]
roots, with ample shelters in winter; young sheep, originally
sound and healthy, will seldom or never get diseased on
American soil.

The few diseases which it may be necessary here to mention,
will be treated in the simplest manner. Remedies of general
application, to be administered often by the unskilful and
ignorant, must neither be elaborate nor complicated; and, if
expensive, the lives of most sheep would be dearly purchased
by their application.

A sheep which the owner has reared or purchased at the
ordinary price, is the only domestic animal which can die
without material loss to its owner. The wool and pelt will,
in most instances, repay its cost, while the carcasses of other
animals will be worthless except for manure. The loss of
sheep from occasional disease, will leave the farmer’s pocket
in a very different condition from the loss of an equal value
in horses or cattle. Yet humanity, equally with interest, dictates
the use of such simple remedies for the removal of suffering
and disease, as may be within reach.

Diarrhœa or Scours,

When light and not long continued, calls for no remedy.
It is a healthful provision of nature for the more rapid expulsion
of some offending matter in the system, which, if retained,
might lead to disease. It is generally owing to improper food,
as bad hay or noxious weeds; to a sudden change, as from
dry food to fresh grass; or to an excess, as from overloading
the stomach; and sometimes, from cold and wet.

The remedies are obvious.

Change to suitable food in the first two cases; enforce abstinence
after repletion; and provide warm, dry shelter, with
light diet, if owing to the latter causes.

When severe or long continued, a dose of castor oil may be
given, and after its operation, give four grains of opium and
one ounce chalk, and put them on dry food. Wheat-bran or
shorts, and oat-meal or flaxseed ground, are both good for
ailing lambs and sheep; as are also ripe oats or wheat, fed in
the sheaf, with well cured, sweet hay, and plenty of salt.
Fresh boughs of the juniper, or pine and hemlock, help to
check the disorder.

Looseness in the larger lambs is prevented by having chalk
within their reach; or if they refuse it, administer it in their
food. When it happens soon after birth, place it with the[Pg 130]
ewe in a warm place, and feed the latter with plenty of oats,
or other sound grain. If the milk be deficient, give the lamb
cow’s milk scalded, or let it suck the cow. The tail is sometimes
glued on to the buttocks, while the scours continue.
Separate it immediately by the use of warm water, and rub
the parts with dry loam or clay.

Dysentery.

This is a different and frequently a fatal disease, but resembles
the former in its general symptoms. It is owing to
prolonged diarrhœa, unwholesome or meager food, and other
causes. Bleeding and physic should be resorted to, after
which give warm, nourishing gruel.

Hoven.

For description and remedies, see hoven in cattle.

Braxy.

This is manifested by uneasiness, loathing of food, frequent
drinking, carrying the head down, drawing the back up,
swollen belly, feverish symptoms, and avoidance of the flock.
It appears mostly in late autumn and spring, and may be induced
by exposure to severe storms, plunging in water when
hot, and especially by constipation brought on by feeding on
frostbitten, putrid, or indigestible herbage.

Remedies are not often successful, unless promptly applied.
Bleed freely, and to effect this, in consequence of the stagnant
state of the blood, immersion in a tub of hot water may be
necessary. Then give two ounces Epsom salts, dissolved in
warm water, with a handful of common salt.

If this is unsuccessful, give a clyster made with a pipe-full
of tobacco, boiled for a few minutes in a pint of water.
Administer half, and if this is not effectual, follow with the
remainder. Then bed the animal in dry straw and cover
with blankets, and assist the purgatives with warm gruels,
followed by laxative provender till well.—(Blacklock.) Thousands
of sheep have died on the prairies from braxy, induced
by exposure and miserable forage. Entire prevention
is secured by warm, dry shelters, and nutritious, digestible
food.[Pg 131]

Costiveness.

This is removed by giving two tablespoonfuls of castor
oil every twelve hours, till the difficulty is removed; or give one
ounce Epsom salts. This may be assisted by an injection of
warm, weak suds and molasses.

Stretches.

Sheep sometimes stretch out their noses on the ground, and
around their sides, as if in severe pain. This may be caused
by an involution of one part of the intestine within another.
When owing to this cause, the difficulty is frequently removed
by jerking the animal by the hind-legs several times,
when the pain disappears.

But it is generally occasioned by costiveness, which see
above. This may be prevented by using green food, roots,
&c., once a week, or by allowing them to browse on the evergreens,
pines, hemlock, and firs.

Poison,

From laurel and other plants, is cured by pouring a gill of
melted lard down the throat, or boil for an hour the twigs of
the white ash, and give half to one gill of the strong liquor
immediately; to be repeated if not successful.

Inflammation of the Lungs.

This is produced by improper exposure to cold and wet.
The remedy for slight affections, is warm, dry shelter, and
light food. When severe, resort must be had to bleeding and
purging freely, then to light bran or linseed mashes.

Rot.

This sometimes causes the death of a million of sheep in a
single year in England, yet it is a disease almost unknown
in this country. Foreign authorities ascribe it entirely to
excessive humidity of climate, wet pastures, or too watery
food.

The preventives are therefore obvious. After the use of
dry food and dry bedding, one of the best is the abundant
use of pure salt. In violent attacks, early bleeding, followed
by a dose of two ounces Epsom salts, to be repeated if necessary,
with a change of diet and location, is all that can be done.[Pg 132]

Foot-Rot.

This is frequently a prevalent disease among American
sheep. It is sometimes spontaneous, but more often produced
by contagion. In the former case, it is caused by soft,
rich, or moist pastures. A dry gravelly or rocky range,
will of course be an effectual preventive when owing to this
cause.

The disorder is communicated by the absorbents of the
foot coming in contact with the suppuration which has been
left on the ground from the diseased part. Absolute safety
against this contagion is secured only by a total avoidance of
the walks of the infected animals, till repeated rains, or what
is better, frosts, have disarmed the virus of its malignity.

Remedies are variously compounded, of blue vitriol, verdigris,
tar, spirits of turpentine, alum, saltpetre, salt, lime, copperas,
white-lead, antimony, alcohol, urine, vinegar, &c., all of which
have proved effectual.

The hoof should first be pared and thoroughly scraped.
Then apply a wash made of three parts of blue vitriol, one of
verdigris pulverized finely, with scalding (not boiling) vinegar;
stirring briskly till it is of the consistence of thin cream, and
put it upon the affected part with a paint brush. It is a
good preventive, to apply this to the sound feet of the affected
animal.

Another remedy is to use spirits of turpentine after scraping;
and if the disease is of long standing, add to the turpentine
a strong decoction of blue vitriol dissolved in water.
The foot should be examined every week, and the remedy repeated
till perfect soundness is restored.

A feather dipped in muriatic or nitric acid, and applied to
the parts after scraping and cleansing, is a good remedy.
When put upon the soles of foot-sore sheep, it hardens the
hoofs, and enables them to travel better.

Sheep are sometimes cured by keeping them on a dry surface,
and driving over a barn-floor daily, which is well covered
with quicklime. It may also be cured by dryness, and repeated
washing with soap-suds.

The above ailment should not be confounded with a temporary
soreness, or inflammation of the hoof, occasioned by the
irritation from the long, rough grasses which abound in low
situations, which is removed with the cause; or if it continues,
apply white paint or tar, after thorough washing.[Pg 133]

Corrosion of the Flesh by Flies or Maggots,

May be cured by first removing the vermin; then wash with
Castile soap and warm soft water, after which apply white-lead
with linseed oil. Tar put on the festering wound corrodes it;
but this, or spirits of turpentine placed on the sound parts near
it, keep off the flies by their strong effluvia.

If the wound be slight, and the weather moderate, apply a
little spirits of turpentine with a strong decoction of elder bark.

Flies on Sheep

May be prevented by smearing with a composition made of
two pounds lard or soft grease, one pound sulphur, half pint
oil of amber, or oil of tar, or tar alone. A small spoonful is
sufficient for a sheep.—Genesee Farmer.

Protection from the Gad-Fly.

In July, August, and September, in the Northern states, the
gad-fly (Œstus ovis) attacks the nostrils of the sheep, and there
deposites its eggs, which, on being hatched, immediately crawl
up and make a lodgment in the head. They are frequently
repelled by laying a thick coat of tar on the bottom of the
troughs, and sprinkling it with salt. The smell of the tar adhering
to the nose will drive off the fly. A more effectual
remedy is to apply it thoroughly with a brush to the external
part of the nose.

If a few furrows of loose earth are turned up in their pastures,
the sheep will hold their noses to them, and thus keep
off the fly.

The symptoms of grubs in the head, are drooping of the
head and ears, discharge of bloody and watery matter from the
nostrils, and loss of strength in the limbs.

If worms have made a lodgment, take half a pound of good
Scotch snuff, and two quarts boiling water: stir, and let it stand
till cold. Inject about a tablespoonful of this liquid and sediment
up each nostril, with a syringe. Repeat this three or
four times at intervals, from the middle of October till January:
the grubs are then small, and will not have injured the
sheep. The efficacy of the snuff will be increased, by adding
half an ounce assafœtida, pounded in a little water. The effect
on the sheep is immediate prostration and apparent death,
but they will soon recover. A decoction of tobacco will afford
a substitute for snuff.—N. Eng. Far.[Pg 134]

Blacklock’s remedy is, to half fill the bowl of a pipe with
tobacco, light it, and then hold the sheep, while a person inserts
the stem some distance into the nostril, and blows a few
whiffs into the nose. The operation is then repeated with the
other nostril.

Swollen Mouth

Is sometimes fatal. It is said to be cured by daubing the
lips and mouth plentifully with tar.—Albany Cultivator.

Foul Noses.

Dip a small swab into tar, then roll in salt. Put some on
the nose, and compel the sheep to swallow a small quantity.—American
Far.

A disease indicated by drooping, running at the eyes, weakness
in the back and loins, inability to use the hind legs, was
removed by turning the sheep into a pasture containing lobelia,
(Indian tobacco.) Dried lobelia was also given, and produced
the same effect.—Cultivator.

Scab.

This loathsome disease, to which fine-woolled sheep are particularly
liable, is caused, like itch in the human subject, by a
small insect, a species of the acari. It is first manifest by the
rubbing of the sheep, and soon after by one or more tufts of
wool, which is loosened at the roots. On feeling the skin, a
hard, dry tumor is perceptible. To prevent contagion, remove
the infected sheep to a separate pasture or yard as soon
as discovered.

Remedies.—The Spanish shepherds dissolve a little salt in
their mouth, and drop it upon the infected part.

When the tumor has become enlarged, the wool should be
removed closely to the skin, the scab scraped with a curry-comb,
then wash with strong soap-suds or ley, and afterwards
rub thoroughly with sulphur or brimstone, mixed with lard or
grease.

An effectual remedy is prepared by taking one pound of tobacco,
which add to 12 quarts ley from wood ashes of sufficient
strength for washing, and four quarts urine; to this add
another mixture of a gill high-wines; ¼ oz. camphor; ¼ oz.
Spanish brown, and ½ gill spirits of turpentine. A small quantity
of this applied to the sore will never fail.

Immediately after shearing, scab may readily be cured by[Pg 135]
immersing the sheep, (excepting the head,) in a strong decoction
of tobacco liquor, adding a gill of spirits of turpentine for
the first, and making a slight addition of fresh liquid for each
sheep, enough to keep up the strength of the tobacco and turpentine,
and taking care to rub the affected part thoroughly.
For lambs, this liquor should be diluted, but yet left strong
enough to kill ticks in one or two minutes, which may be
ascertained by experiment.

Scab is also removed by using a composition of one pound
plug tobacco to three gallons of water, with lime-water and
oil of vitriol added; or a decoction of hellebore with vinegar,
sulphur, and spirits of turpentine.—(H. D. Grove.)

Scab is propagated more by using the same rubbing posts,
than by contact with each other. Sheep in low condition are
more subject to it than others.

Ticks and Lice

Sometimes infest sheep. Good feeding and shelter is a
partial preventive, but when they have made their lodgment,
they must be dipped in a decoction of tobacco water. The
most effectual time for their destruction, is a few days after
shearing, when they will have left the naked bodies of the old
ewes, to hide in the fleeces of the lambs. The dipping in
tobacco water, with the addition of a small quantity of turpentine,
is an effectual remedy.

After dipping the sheep or lambs, the liquor should be
pressed out from the wool, upon an inclined plane, so arranged
as again to run into the vessel.

Pelt-rot

Will be recognised as one of the staple diseases of our
native sheep, described on page 89. The wool in this case
falls off, leaving the sheep partially or almost wholly naked;
but this is not accompanied with soreness or apparent disease.
The animal must be provided with a warm stall and generous
feed, and the naked skin should be anointed with tar and
grease. The preventive is good keeping and shelter.

Staggers or Sturdy, and Water in the Head,

Sometimes affect sheep, but more especially lambs under a
year old. The first is caused by the hydatid. It is considered[Pg 136]
as an almost incurable disorder, but is sometimes removed by
trepanning.

Chancellor Livingston carefully supplied two thus attacked,
with food for three months, when nature effected a cure. Removal
to dry lands and purging, is a good precaution when
they are first taken.

An English lad lately cured one which had been given
up, by boring with a gimlet into the soft place on the head,
when the water rushed out, and the sheep immediately followed
the others to the pasture. A correspondent of the Albany
Cultivator asserts, that ½ a pint of melted lard poured down
the throat, will cure blind staggers in ten minutes.

Abortion

Occurs sometimes, and is usually caused by excessive fright
or exertion, and sometimes by severe exposure and poor feed.
It is seldom fatal, except to the lamb.

The Uterus

Is occasionally protruded after lambing. It should be immediately
returned, first washing it in warm milk and water, if
any dirt adheres to it. For this, the hand only should be
used. After rubbing it with lard or oil, hold up the hind legs,
and gently replace the protruded parts, then keep the ewe
quiet till fully recovered.

For Garget, or Caked Bag.

Keep the bag thoroughly drained of milk, for which purpose
the lamb is the most efficient. If it is lost, another may be
temporarily substituted. Purge freely with Epsom salts, and
wash the udder repeatedly with very warm water. If matter
forms, it should be opened with the lancet.

Bleeding.

“Nothing tends so much to the recovery of an animal from
a disease in which bleeding is required, as the rapid flow of
the blood from a large orifice. Little impression can be made
on an acute disease by the slow removal of even a large
quantity of blood, as the organs have time to accommodate
themselves to the loss, which might, for any good it will do,
as well be dispensed with. Either bleed rapidly, or not at all.
The nearer the commencement of an ailment, in which you em[Pg 137]ploy
bleeding, the operation is resorted to, the greater the
chance of its doing good.

Bleeding by nicking the under surface of the tail, does very
well, where no great deal of blood is required, but it is not to
be thought of if the veins of the face or neck can possibly be
opened. These are to be taken in preference to a vein on the
leg, as they are much more readily got at. The facial vein
commences by small branches on the side of the face, and runs
downwards and backwards to the base of the jaw, where it
may be felt within two inches of the angle, or opposite the
middle grinding tooth. It is here that the orifice must be
made: the thumb of the left hand being held against the vein,
so as to prevent the flow of blood towards the heart, will make
it rise.

Some prefer opening the jugular vein, which commences
behind the eye and runs down the side of the neck. This
vessel is, however, more difficult to open than the former, being
better covered with wool, and not so easily exposed or
made to swell. Stringing is the mode commonly resorted to
for this end; that is to say, a cord is drawn tightly round the
neck close to the shoulder, so as to stop the circulation through
the vein, and render it perceptible to the finger.

A lancet is the instrument generally used in bleeding, though
a well-pointed penknife will do at a pinch. The opening must
always be made obliquely; but before attempting this, the
animal must be secured, by placing it between the operator’s
legs, with its croup against a wall. The selected vein is then
fixed by the fingers of the operator’s left hand, so as to prevent
its rolling or slipping before the lancet. Having fairly
entered the vein, the point of the instrument must be elevated
at the same time that it is pushed a little forward, by which
motion it will be lifted from or cut its way out of the vein.

A prescribed quantity of blood should never be drawn, for the
simple reason that this can never be precisely stated. If the
symptoms are urgent, as in all likelihood they will be, your best
plan is not to stop the flow of blood till the animal fall or is
about to fall. When this occurs, run a pin through the edges
of the orifice, and finish by twisting round it a lock of wool.”—(Blacklock.)

Large cuts are healed

By first sewing and then covering with salve. Smaller
ones may be secured with an adhesive plaster or bandage.[Pg 138]

To protect lambs from wolves and foxes,

Smear the neck plentifully with a mixture of tar and sulphur.
Bells are also said to guard the flock, as both are excessively
wary, and have a great dislike to any thing artificial.
Large dogs will keep them at bay. A better remedy is to
kill the marauders, which may be done by inserting strychnine
in fresh meat and leaving it in their haunts.

CHAPTER V.

THE HORSE.

In nearly all ages and countries, the horse has been the
devoted servant, and the object of the pride and affection of
man. Among the semi-civilized Tartars of Middle and Northern
Asia; the aborigines of our remote Western prairies,
reaching even beyond the Rocky Mountains, and many other
rude nations, his flesh is used for food. Most of the tribes
among the former use the milk for domestic purposes, and
especially when fermented and changed to an unpleasantly
sour and intoxicating beverage. But throughout the civilized
world, with some slight exceptions, the horse is useful only
for his labor. For this purpose he is pre-eminently fitted by
his compact, closely-knit frame; his sinewy, muscular limbs;
his easy, rapid stride; his general form, and entire structure
and habits.

He is found in his wild condition in Central Asia, Siberia,
and the interior of Africa; and for 300 years he has been
turned loose to follow his native instincts on the illimitable
pampas of South America, and the wide-spread prairies of
Mexico and California. In all these regions he closely resembles
the medium varieties of the domesticated horse; but as
the natural result of his freedom, he possesses more fire and
spirit than any other, except the blood-horse.

Arabia is generally claimed as the original native locality of
the horse, and as the only source from which he is to be derived
in the requisite perfection for the highest improvement
of the race. But Strabo, who wrote more than 1,800 years
ago, asserts that the horse did not then flourish in Arabia, and
it was not till some centuries later that he attained any de[Pg 139]cided
superiority there. Great attention, however, has been
paid in that country, since the era of Mahomet, to breeding a
light, agile, and enduring frame; intelligence and tractability
of character; and the perpetuation of these qualities by the
most scrupulous regard for the purity of blood.

This is equally true of the Barb or pure-bred horse of Morocco,
and those of the northern coast of Africa, in Egypt,
among the Turks, and indeed wherever the followers of the
Prophet are to be found. It is unquestionable, that the influence
of the Eastern blood among the choicest animals of modern
Europe, has been followed by great improvements in racing
stock. Yet it is equally certain, that the race-horse, both of
England and the United States, has accomplished what has
never been demonstrated as within the ability of their progenitors;
and on repeated trials with the Eastern horses, he has
shown himself confessedly their superior in speed, strength,
and endurance.

In 1825, two English horses ran against the two fleetest
Cossacks which could be found throughout the entire region
of their best blood, and in a continued race of 47 miles, the
European took the stakes; Sharper, the most successful, performing
the distance in 2 hours and 48 minutes. About the
same time, Recruit, an English horse of moderate reputation,
easily beat Pyramus, the best Arabian on the Bengal side of
India.

The Leeds, the Darley, and the Godolphin Arabian; the
Lister and D’Arcey’s White Turk, and other noted Eastern
horses, would not compare in performance with many of their
descendants. But these, with some other choice Arabians, on
the best mares, and with every advantage for obtaining celebrity,
have succeeded in establishing a fame as just as it has
been enduring. Yet it must at the same time be remembered,
that of the innumerable other pure-bred horses which have
been tried in Europe, a few only have rescued their names
from oblivion.

The experience of Eastern blood in this country, in comparison
with the best English, is decidedly in favor of the latter.
We have had one horse of unsurpassed excellence, which a
fortunate accident threw upon our shores a short time previous
to 1770. This was the white Barb Ranger, which was presented
by the Emperor of Morocco, as the choice of his stud,
to an English naval officer for some distinguished service. On
his route homeward, the animal was set on shore for exercise
at an intermediate port, where in his gambols he broke three[Pg 140]
of his legs, and thinking him worthless, his owner gave him to
the commander of a New England merchantman, then present.
He was readily accepted, and placed in slings on board of his
vessel, and recovered.

This animal stood for many years, in the eastern part of
Connecticut; and on their good mares, produced a numerous
progeny of unrivalled cavalry horses, which rendered invaluable
services in the troop commanded by that consummate
partisan, Captain (afterwards General) Lee, of the Revolution.
It is said the favorite white field-horse of General Washington
was of the same stock. He was afterwards sold to Captain
Lindsey, as a special favor, and taken, to Virginia, where he
produced some good racers.

Bussorah, a small sorrel horse, brought into this country in
1819, from the head of the Persian Gulf, got many choice
roadsters, though no racers of celebrity.

The Narraganset pacers, a race belonging to our Northern
states, but for many years almost extinct, possessed for a long
time an unrivalled reputation for spirit, endurance, and easy
rapid motion under the saddle. They are said to have originated
from a Spanish horse, many of which are pure descendants
of the Barb.

As an offset to these isolated examples of success in this
country, we have numerous instances of the importation of the
best Orientals, which have been extensively used on some of
our superior mares, without any marked effect. We shall refer
to three prominent importations only.

The first consisted of two choice Arabians, or Barbs, selected
in Tunis by General Eaton, and sent to his estate in Massachusetts.
The second was a present of four choice Barbs, from
the Emperor of Morocco to our government, in 1830; and the
third consisted of two Arabians, sent by the Imaum of Muscat,
near the Persian Gulf, to our government in 1840. These
were all claimed to be, and no doubt were, of the pure Kochlani,
the unadulterated line royal; yet none have earned any
distinguished reputation, either by their own performances or
those of their descendants.

It is to England we are mainly indebted for the great improvement
in our blood, road, and farm horses. A numerous
race of fine horses was reared on that island, long previous to
its authentic history; for, in his first invasion Julius Caesar
took many of them to Rome, where they immediately became
great favorites, although she had already plundered every
region of some of their best breeds.[Pg 141]

What might have been the particular merit of the English
horse at the time of the Norman invasion, is not known, but
it is certain that the Saxon cavalry under Harold were speedily
overpowered by William, at the battle of Hastings, which
at once secured the throne to the Conqueror. History first
informs us of the improvement of British horses, by importations
from abroad during this reign, which consisted of a number
of Spanish stallions. These were supposed to be strongly
imbued with the Arabian blood, which had been brought over
to that country by the Moors, who had founded the Saracenic
empire in the Peninsula, three centuries before. More than a
century later, John made some importations from Flanders, to
give weight and substance to their draught and cavalry horses.
The improvement of their various breeds was afterwards pursued,
with more or less judgment and zeal, by other British
monarchs, till they reached their highest excellence during the
middle of the last century.

Flying Childers, Eclipse, Highflyer, and others on the course,
have probably exceeded in speed anything ever before accomplished;
while the draught-horse, the roadster, the hackney,
the cavalry-horse, and the hunter, attained a merit at that time
which some judicious authorities claim has not been since increased.
It is even asserted, that some of the more serviceable
breeds have been seriously injured by too great an infusion of
the blood; while the almost universal absence of long heats
on the turf has tended to the improvement of speed rather
than bottom in the race-horse.

The improvement of the horse in this country has not been
a matter of record or history, till within a comparatively recent
period. But it has silently, and with no little rapidity, been
going forward for more than a century, till we have obtained
a race of animals, throughout the Eastern and Middle states at
least, which probably equal those of any other country for
adaptedness to draught, the road, and the saddle. This improvement
has been mainly brought about by the importation
of some of the best and stoutest of the English blood. In breeding
from these for purposes of utility, particular reference has
been paid to strength, enduringness, and speed. No horses
surpass our best four-mile bloods; none equal our trotters;
and though much inequality exists in those bred for various
other uses, yet for profitable service, it is believed, no equal
number of animals elsewhere can exceed those in the region
above indicated.

It would be a superfluous task to attempt enumerating all[Pg 142]
the imported horses that have contributed to this improvement.
Each good animal has done something. But among the earlier
horses which may be named with distinction, as having
effected much for our useful beasts, are Lath, Wildair, Slender,
Sourkrout, Tallyho, Figure, Bay Richmond, Expedition, Baronet,
and a host of others.

Pre-eminent among these, was imported Messenger. He
was foaled in 1780, imported in 1788, and died in 1808. He
stood in different places in New Jersey, and in Dutchess,
Westchester, and Queens counties in New York; and upon
the mares derived from the foregoing and other good horses,
he got a numerous progeny of illustrious descendants. Of
these we may name those capital stallions, Potomac, Hamlintonian,
Bay Figure, Engineer, Mambrino, Tippoo Saib, Columbus,
Gunn’s, and Bushe’s Messenger, and many others, which
were extensively disseminated over the Northern and Middle
states; and he has the credit of imparting a large share of his
merits to that nonpareil of horses, his grandson, American
Eclipse. His posterity were so numerous and widely spread,
that it may be safely asserted, that of the best horses bred in
the above states, scarcely one can now be found which does
not trace one or more crosses to this distinguished sire. His
success in producing roadsters, besides his blood qualities of
speed and endurance, consisted in his great strength, and the
peculiar formation of his limbs, large forehand and deep quarters,
in which he excelled any other of the imported bloods.

As an illustration of what may be accomplished by judicious
breeding with the present materials in our hands, we
mention one family of the American roadster, which is strongly
tinctured with blood, and which has attained an enviable
notoriety among the choicest of the Northern horses. They
are derived from the Morgan horse of Vermont, that was
foaled in Springfield, Mass., in 1793. He was got by True
Britton, supposed to have been bred by Gen. Delancey of
New York, and got by imported Wildair, (or one of his sons,)
a horse of such distinguished excellence, as to have been re-exported
to England, for the benefit of his stock.

The Morgan horse stood in Vermont from 1795 till his
death, at an advanced age. From him and the choice mares
of Vermont, descended many excellent colts; and his merits
were inherited in an eminent degree by three of his sons,
which stood in the same state and continued the career of improvement
commenced by the sire. The result has been the
production of a family of roadsters, of much similarity of ap[Pg 143]pearance[3]
and uniformity of character, unsurpassed by any
others for serviceable qualities.

They are of medium size, from 13½ to 15 hands high;
with a well-formed head and neck; high withers; deep chest;
round body; short back; long quarters; broad flat legs;
moderately small feet; long wavy mane and tail; presenting
altogether the beau ideal of the road horse. They are spirited,
docile, hardy, and easily kept. They have an easy, rapid
trot, and glide along with a good load, without clatter or
apparent effort, at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour.

This family of horses has not of course been bred long
enough within themselves, to have attained to the eminence
of a distinct breed. They are mentioned, merely as a type of
what the serviceable roadster ought to be, and what he may
become by the use of the proper instruments for breeding.
And if the materials already in our hands are intelligently
and perseveringly used, we can produce all we require of
horse-flesh.

Besides our unsurpassed blood-horses, we have others derived
from various sources, and especially from the different
English breeds, all of which are variously compounded, with
the first and with each other. On our northeastern frontier,
the Canadian prevails, a bastard but not degenerate race,
made up of the French Norman and the English or American.
At the extreme South and West, we have the horse of Spanish
origin, obtained in his domestic state in Florida and Louisiana;
and from another branch of the Spanish, are descended the
wild horses of Mexico and the more northern prairies. These
are diversified in character, and generally possess medium
size and merit.

The Conestoga, a heavy roadster, is principally reared in
Pennsylvania, and is used for the team and truck. He is
an amalgamation of several breeds, but probably owes a
share of his character to the Flemish horse, for which there
was a decided partiality among the numerous German emigrants
of that state.

Several varieties of ponies are to be found in different sections,
but principally among the French, the half-breed, and
the Indians upon the frontiers, who have bred a stunted race
from the Canadian or wild-horse, and such others as could[Pg 144]
survive the hard usage and scanty winter food afforded by
nature and their rude husbandry. Many of these have considerable
beauty and symmetry, and are fleet, hardy, and
spirited.

Fig. 27.

Norman Horse.

The modern Norman, or mixture of the old French Norman
draught-horse, (heavy-framed, big-limbed, but stout and
hardy,) and the Andalusian, a descendant of the Moorish
barbs, has been introduced within a few years, and will unquestionably
become a very popular horse for many purposes.
He exhibits the qualities of both ancestry in the proper proportions
for farm service. He has a thick head; lively, prick[Pg 145]
ears; short, heavy neck; large breast and shoulders; strong
limbs; well-knit back; large quarters, with much wavy mane,
tail, and fetlock. Like his French progenitor, he frequently
stands low in the withers, which enables him to throw great
weight into the collar; and the diminished, flattened leg, the
wind and game derived from his Moorish blood, give him
much of the capacity and endurance of the thorough-bred.

The English cart-horse has for a long time made up some of
the best, heavy dray-horses in the country, and late importations
have refreshed the breed with additional choice specimens.
The Cleveland bay has been introduced of late, and
promises good carriage-horses from our well-spread, sizeable
mares. The Norfolk trotter Belfounder was imported many
years since, and with our high-bred mares, has produced many
choice roadsters and trotters.

The remainder of our horse-flesh deserving of any notice, is
chiefly composed of such as are superior in point of blood.
The improvement in the American horse, from this source, is
conspicuous and decided. Judicious breeders still look for
qualities in the descendants, which they sought for in their
imported sires, and the infusion of some of the stoutest of the
blood is rapidly gaining an ascendency in the general stock.
Our intelligent agriculturists should look to this subject closely,
and not permit this system to proceed to an extent that may
be prejudicial to their value as draught-horses, as has been
done in some portions of England and our Southern states.

There is no danger from excess of blood, if it be of the right
kind; but it is seldom found combining that fulness and stoutness,
and that docility and tractableness of disposition, which
are essential to the gig-horse or the horse of all work. Yorke
says truly, that “the road-horse may possess different degrees
of blood, according to the nature of the country and the work
required of him. [He might have added with propriety, and
according to the character of the blood.] His legs will be too
slender; his feet too small; his stride too long, and he will
rarely be able to trot. Three parts, or half, and for the horse
of all work, even less than that, will make a good and useful
animal.” For the saddle only, the high-bred, if not disposed
to be vicious, is never objectionable to an enterprising and
accomplished rider. His long elastic pasterns, giving easy,
flexible motions; his quick and almost electrical obedience
when under thorough discipline; his habitual canter and high
spirit, always commend him for this purpose.[Pg 146]

Fig. 28.

Points of a Horse.

1. Muzzle.—2. Race.—3. Forehead.—4. Poll.—5. Crest.—6. Withers.—7. Back.—8.
Loins.—9. Hip.—10. Croup.—11. Dock.—12. Quarter.—13. Thigh, or Gaskin.—14.
Ham-string.—15. Point of the Hock.—16. Cannon.—17. Fetlock.—18. Large
Pastern.—19. Small Pastern.—20. Hoof.—21. Coronet.—22. Ham, or Hock.—23.
Sheath.—24. Flank.—25. Girth.—26. Elbow.—27. Heel.—28. Hoof.—29. Small Pastern.—30.
Large Pastern.—31. Fetlock.—32. Cannon.—33. Knee.—34. Arm.—35.
Breast, or Bosom.—36. Point of the Shoulder.—37. Windpipe.—38. Gullet.—39.
Jowl.

Some of the prominent external points of a fine Saddle or Gig
Horse,

Are, a moderately small head, free from fleshiness; fine
muzzle and expansive nostrils; broad at the throat and wide
between the eyes, which denotes intelligence and courage; a
dished face indicates high breeding, and sometimes viciousness;
a convex or Roman nose frequently betokens the reverse; the
ears rather long, yet so finely formed as to appear small, and
playing quickly like those of a deer; the eyes clear, full, and
confident, with a steady forward look. Glancing them backward
or askance with a sinister expression, and with none or
only a slight movement of the head, is indicative of a mischievous
temper.

The neck should be handsomely arched, and fine at the
junction with the head, while the lower extremity must be
full and muscular, and well expanded at the breast and shoulders.
The latter ought to be high and run well back; the
withers strong, firmly knit, and smooth; the breast neither too[Pg 147]
prominent nor retreating, too wide nor too narrow, and supported
by a pair of straight fore-legs, standing well apart. The chest
should be deep, and the girth large; the body full, and not
drawn up too much in the flank; the back short, and the hips
gathered well towards the withers; the loins wide and rising
above the spine; the ribs springing nearly at right angles from
the back, giving roundness to the body. The hips ought to
be long to the root of the tail, and the latter may approach to
near the line of the back, which is a mark of good breeding.

Both the thigh and hock should be large and muscular;
and between the hock or knee and pastern, the legs should be
broad, flat, and short; the hind legs properly bent, and all
well placed under the body; the pasterns of moderate length,
and standing slightly oblique; the hoof hard, smooth, round
before, and wide at the heel; the frog large and sound; and
the sole firm and concave. A white hoof is generally tender,
easy to fracture and to lame, and difficult to hold a shoe.

The draught-horse ought to differ from the foregoing, in possessing
a heavier and shorter neck; a wider and stouter breast,
and low withers, so as to throw the utmost weight into the
collar; a heavier body and quarters; larger legs and feet;
and more upright shoulders and pasterns.

Considerations which affect the Value of the Horse.

The color is not material, provided it be not pied or mealy.
No better color for horses can be found than the dark bay or
brown, with black mane, tail, and legs. But most of the other
colors are frequently found with the best horses.

Hard-mouthed horses, when accompanied with great spirit,
are objectionable, as they require peculiar bitting and the
utmost vigilance.

The paces and action of a horse are important, for if good
they give a much greater capacity for performance. Some
of these depend on form and structure, and are unchangeable;
others are the result of breaking. All horses should be
taught to walk fast, as it is their easiest and most economical
pace, and it will help them over a great deal of ground in a
day, even with a heavy load, and with comparatively little
effort. A horse that steps short and digs his toes into the
ground, is worthless as a traveller, and suited only to a ferry-boat
or bark-mill.

It is important that a horse be good-tempered. If inclined
to viciousness, he should be gently yet firmly managed when it[Pg 148]
is first apparent. A resort to great severity will be justified,
if necessary to conquer him; for if once allowed to become a
habit, it will be difficult to cure him. Grooms and mischievous
stable-boys, frequently do much injury by their idle tricks
with horses; and when detected, they should be discharged
at once.

Some horses are nervous, easily excited, and start at every
unusual noise or object. Others are restive and fretful, and
ever anxious to be on the move. Kindness, and firm, yet mild
treatment, by which their motions and will are at all times
controlled, and their confidence secured, are the only remedies.

Others are inclined to sluggishness. These should have
stimulating food, and never be overloaded or overworked, and
then kept well to their paces. Whatever they are capable of
performing, can be got from them in this way only. Habit has
great influence with animals, as with man; and when within
the compass of his ability, he may be habituated to any reasonable
physical exertion.

Breeding.

Agreeably to the general principles before enumerated, such
animals should be selected, as most eminently possess those
points which it is desired to propagate, and these, they should
not only exhibit in themselves, but should inherit as far as
possible, from a long line of ancestry. For the perpetuation
of particular points in progeny, it would be safer to rely on
the latter quality than the former.

The selection of a mare, relatively larger than the horse, is
an important rule in breeding, and it is believed that much of
the success of Arabian and other Eastern horses as stock-getters,
has resulted from the application of this principle.
They possess valuable traits, but condensed within too small a
compass. When such an animal is put to a well-bred, larger
mare, the fœtus has abundance of room and nourishment to
develop and perfect the circumscribed outlines of the male
parent, and acquire for itself increased volume and character.

The horse ought not to be less than four or five, and the
mare one year older, before being put to breeding. It would
be still better to defer it for two or three years, or till the
frame is fully matured.[Pg 149]

The Gestation of the Mare

Sometimes varies from 44 to 56 weeks, but she usually
goes with young from 47 to 50; and it is advisable she should
take the horse at a time which will ensure the foaling when
the weather is settled, and there is a fresh growth of grass.
She will be the better for light working till near the time of
foaling, if well, but not too abundantly fed. In a few days
after this, she may resume moderate labor; and if not in the
way or troublesome, the foal may run with her; but if she is
exposed to heating, it should be confined till she cools, as
suckling then is decidedly injurious to it.

The mare is in danger of slinking her foal from blows and
over-exertion, the use of smutty grain, foul hay, or offensive
objects or smell; and when this has once occurred, which
happens usually in the fourth or fifth month, she should afterwards
be generously fed at that period, and only moderately
worked, to prevent a recurrence of the casualty. When liable
to slinking, the mare should be removed from others in foal,
lest a peculiar sympathy should excite an epidemic.