OF LIVE STOCK By Earley Vernon Wilcox, Ph.D., and Authors of Farmer's Cyclopedia of Agriculture Illustrated NEW YORK ORANGE JUDD COMPANY LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., Limited COPYRIGHT, 1908 by ORANGE JUDD COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Entered at Stationers' Hall, PRINTED IN U. S. A. SF61 AGRIC PREFACE In Farmer's Cyclopedia of Agriculture, published in 1904, we presented in a systematic manner the established facts which constitute the foundation of practical agriculture as a whole. At that time we had in mind the expansion of the section on animal husbandry in a subsequent volume to more adequately meet the needs of the two million American farmers who make live stock their principal source of income. After three years of labor this idea has come to fruition. There are many books devoted to the different kinds of stock, as cattle, horses, hogs, and poultry; the subject has also been treated with reference to special features, like breeds of live stock, feeding, animal diseases, dairying, stock judging, breeding, refrigeration of animal products, curing of meats, meat and milk inspection, blacksmithing and marketing stock. Occasionally two or more of these features have been combined; but heretofore no attempt has been made to bring all these matters and the multitude of other features of animal industry into a symmetrical whole. In the first five parts of the book we have considered the general aspects of stock raising, giving attention to those facts and principles which apply to all kinds of farm animals. The other seven parts are concerned with specific animals-horses, mules, asses, beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, etc. We have also discussed the present status and value of many other less useful or semi-domesticated animals and game in which an increasing interest is being manifested. We have consistently tried to present all the important facts in their logical bearing on each problem of animal production. The selection of material has been made from the viewpoint of its value to the practical stock raiser in solving the almost innumerable specific problems which he finds. The basis of this volume is to be sought in the bulletins and reports of the agricultural experiment stations, Federal and State Departments of Agriculture, live stock periodicals, other publications of this and foreign countries, and in our own personal experience. The book, therefore, embodies those experimentally established facts and principles of animal husbandry which at present are our most reliable guides to profitable practice. American stock raisers are in a position to produce economically the finest of animal products of all sorts. The recent meat inspection law has enabled the Bureau of Animal Industry to devise and put in operation the most efficient system of meat inspection known to the world. This book is designed to encourage the stockman to do his part in increasing the national resources. The task of preparing the present volume has been a peculiarly pleasant one on account of the hearty co-operation which we have received from various sources. The list of names of those to whom we are indebted would run into the hundreds. We are thus compelled to forego further acknowledgment than the specific credits given throughout the text. Photographs have been freely loaned by the secretaries of nearly every breed association, many experiment station workers and private breeders. We feel particularly grateful for the generous assistance and the untiring interest which the publishers have given to the completion of the book. After the illustrations had all been made and the whole text was in page proof, a disastrous fire destroyed the printing plant, including the illustrations for the book, some of the original manuscript and all the page proof. The publishers, however, at once began the work of putting it in type again and assisted greatly in securing new illustrations. In acknowledging our gratitude to the publishers we should mention especially Prof W. G. Johnson, secretary of Orange Judd Company and associate editor of American Agriculturist, who has had general supervision of the book in the process of making. United States Department Agriculture, THE AUTHORS. |