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 — John Shaqi
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
In the cultivation of grass the farmer will find it to his advantage to
cultivate none but the best kinds; the whole pasture lands will then be
filled with valuable grass seeds. The number of grass seeds worth
cultivating is but few, and these should be sown separately. It is bad
policy to sow different kinds of grass seed together--just as bad as to
sow wheat, oats, turnips, and corn promiscuously.
The reason why the farmers, as a community, will be benefited by sowing
none but the best seed is, because grass seeds are distributed through
neighboring pastures by the winds, and there take root. Now, if the
neighboring pastures abound in inferior grasses, the fields will soon be
filled with useless plants, which are very difficult to be got rid of.
We refer those of our readers who desire to make themselves acquainted
with animal chemistry to Professor Liebig's work on that science.
ON BREEDING.
Large sums of money have, from time to time, been expended with a view
of improving stock, and many superior cattle have been introduced into
this country; yet, after a few generations, the beautiful form and
superior qualities of the originals are nearly lost, and the importer
finds to his cost that the produce is no better than that of his
neighbors. What are the causes of this deterioration? We are told--and
experience confirms the fact--that "like produces like." Good qualities
and perfect organization are perpetuated by a union of animals
possessing those properties: of course it follows, that malformation,
hereditary taints, and vices are transmitted and aggravated.
The destructive practice of breeding "in and in," or, in other words,
selecting animals of the same family, is one of the first causes of
degeneracy; and this destructive practice has proved equally unfortunate
in the human family. Physical defects are the result of the
intermarriage of near relatives. In Spain, the deformed and feeble state
of the aristocracy arises from their alliances being confined to the
same class of relatives through successive generations. But we need not
go to Spain to verify such facts. Go into our churchyards, and read on
the tombstones the names of thousands of infants,--gems withered in the
bud,--young men, and maidens, cut down and consigned to a premature
grave; and then prove, if you can, that early marriages and near
alliances are not the chief causes of this great mortality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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