The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy managementDadd, George H.
Science
The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy management
Dadd, George H.
Veterinary medicine
the pocket of the breeder, and the health of the whole community,--let
such a one go into our slaughter-houses and markets, and if he does not
see a wide field for improvement, then we will agree to let the subject
sink into oblivion. In order to show what a whole community can
accomplish when their efforts are directed to one object, let us look on
what a single individual, by his own industry and perseverance, has
accomplished simply in improving the breed of sheep. The person referred
to is Mr. Bakewell. His breeding animals were, in the first place,
selected from different breeds. These he crossed with the best to be
had. After the cross had been carried to the desired point, he confined
his selections to his own herds or flocks. He formed in his mind a
standard of perfection for each kind of animals, and to this he
constantly endeavored to bring them. That he was eminently successful in
the attainment of his object, cannot be denied. He began his farming
operations about 1750. In 1760, his rams did not sell for more than two
or three guineas per head. From this time he gradually advanced in
terms, and in 1770 he let some for twenty-five guineas a head for the
season. Marshall states that, in 1786, Bakewell let two thirds of a ram
(reserving a third for himself) to two breeders, for a hundred guineas
each, the entire services of the ram being rated at three hundred
guineas the season. It is also stated that he made that year, by letting
rams, more than one thousand pounds.
"In 1789, he made twelve hundred guineas by three '_ram brothers_,' and
two thousand guineas from seven, and, from his whole letting, full three
thousand guineas. Six or seven other breeders made from five hundred to
a thousand guineas each by the same operation. The whole amount of
ram-letting of Bakewell's breed is said to have been not less, that
year, than ten thousand pounds, [forty-eight thousand dollars.]
"It is true that still more extraordinary prices were obtained for the
use of rams of this breed after Mr. Bakewell's death. Pitt, in his
'Survey of Leicestershire,' mentions that, in 1795, Mr. Astley gave
three hundred guineas for the use of a ram of this breed, engaging, at
the same time, that he should serve _gratis_ twenty ewes owned by the
man of whom the ram was hired; making for the entire use of the ram,
that season, four hundred and twenty guineas. In 1796, Mr. Astley gave
for the use of the same ram three hundred guineas, and took forty ewes
to be served gratis. At the price charged for the service of the ram to
each ewe, the whole value for the season was five hundred guineas. He
served one hundred ewes. In 1797, the same ram was let to another person
at three hundred guineas, and twenty ewes sent with him; the serving of
which was reckoned at a hundred guineas, and the ram was restricted to
sixty more, which brought his value for the season to four hundred
guineas. Thus the ram made, in three seasons, the enormous sum of
_thirteen hundred guineas_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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