CHAPTER II

FOR STOCK-RAISERS Stock-raising in the United States was, until quite recent years, under the evil influence of the careless methods which had been handed down from the old days of the range-cattle industry. Chicago men still tell the story of the Chicago banker, afterwards Secretary of the Treasury, who declared, in reply to a request for a loan on the security of range-cattle, that he “would as soon lend money on a shoal of mackerel in the Atlantic Ocean.” The vague possession and the vague methods of breeding and marketing which suggested this comparison did not form the habits of close observation and incessant care which became necessary when land and food began to cost money. The lesson has been learned, and the present conditions of the industry are infinitely better for the country at large. It has been proved that fattening as well as breeding can be successfully undertaken in almost every part of the United States. Even in the North West, the tendency to-day is to turn from exclusive grain growing to a combination of cropping and feeding. Cattle, and also work horses of the right type, for which the demand is always greater than the supply, are yielding fair profits on many of the New England farms which had been neglected for years. [Sidenote: Staying on the Land] One of the most encouraging features of the present situation is that the broader distribution of the live-stock industry encourages farm-bred boys to remain at home. It has long been a popular belief that the attraction of the cities lies largely in the facilities for amusement which they offer; but the best class of young men who have left the farms have done so because they did not believe that plowing and sowing and reaping gave enough scope for their intelligence and their initiative. When stock-raising is combined with tillage, there is not only a greater interest in farm life and a greater chance to make general knowledge effective, but there are also better opportunities for a young man to make a small venture of his own while he is still a farm hand. It is certainly true that stock-raising needs the young man who is determined to know something about everything and all there is to know about one thing. To him the articles in the Britannica which are indicated in this chapter should be of the greatest value, for they cover a broad range, and they are written by specialists of the highest authority. They do not profess to teach what can only be learnt in the course of practical experience, but they will make each day’s work more interesting and more effective. [Sidenote: Cattle] You cannot do better than to begin your reading with the article (Vol. 4, p. 337) on the family of animals to which cattle belong, a family so varied that it includes so small a creature as the hare, and so large a one as the rhinoceros. The article CATTLE (Vol. 5, p. 359), by Professor Wallace and Dr. Fream, begins by reminding you that the idea of cattle owning has always been so closely associated with the idea of wealth that the two words “capital” and “cattle” have the same root, and that our word “pecuniary” is taken from the Latin term for cattle. This article, illustrated with photographs of the best specimens of bulls and cows of different breeds, deals with Shorthorns, Herefords, Devons, Holsteins, Dutch Belteds, Sussexes, Longhorns, Aberdeen-Angus, Red Polleds, Galloways, Highlands, Kerry’s, Dexters, Jerseys and Guernseys, and has a section on the rearing of calves. OX (Vol. 20, p. 398) is chiefly about the origin of domestic cattle. AGRICULTURE (Vol. 1, p. 388) contains information of a more general kind as to practical stock-raising. The best methods of mating are described fully in BREEDS and BREEDING (Vol. 4, p. 487), VARIATION and SELECTION (Vol. 27, p. 906), and HEREDITY (Vol. 13, p. 350), by Dr. Chalmers Mitchell. MENDELISM (Vol. 18, p. 115) will tell you all about the theory which is nowadays the great subject of discussion among experts in breeding. EMBRYOLOGY (Vol. 9, p. 314), by Dr. Hans Driesch, and REPRODUCTION (Vol. 23, p. 116), by Professor Vines, contain the results of the latest investigations, and the article SEX (Vol. 24, p. 747) describes the recent experiments undertaken with the hope that breeders may at some future time be enabled to vary at will the proportion of males and females. TELEGONY (Vol. 26, p. 509) gives you the evidence for and against the belief that offspring are influenced by a previous mate of the dam. FOOD PRESERVATION (Vol. 10, p. 612) and REFRIGERATING (Vol. 23, p. 30) cover the cold shipping and cold storage of beef. LEATHER (Vol. 16, p. 330), by Dr. J. G. Parker, one of the foremost technical experts on this subject, follows hides through the market to their final distribution and industrial uses. [Sidenote: Horses and Mules] Notwithstanding the harm that trolley cars and automobiles and mechanically propelled agricultural machines have done to important branches of the horse business, and notwithstanding the competition which American exporters find in Europe from the Argentine ranches, there is still an active market for farm horses and for stock suited to trucking and light delivery work in cities. You no doubt find, in whatever part of the United States your interests lie, that you need to watch the market very closely, and that you must always be ready to change your plans at short notice. But it is to the quick-witted man who is always prepared to vary his methods that the Britannica offers the greatest practical services. The article on the horse family in general (Vol. 9, p. 720) is very interesting, but you will give more time to the elaborate article HORSE (Vol. 13, p. 712), by Richard Lyddeker, E. D. Brickwood, Sir William Flower, and Professor Wallace. The illustrations are unusually valuable, for instead of following the usual custom of making all the photographs the same size, the Editors of the Britannica showed good sense and originality by making each one to scale. The breeds are separately described, and the sections on feeding and breaking are full of useful hints. The history of the thoroughbred strain is carefully traced, the pedigree of one famous type being shown in a table naming more than one hundred ancestors. The article HORSE-RACING (Vol. 13, p. 726), by Alfred Watson, shows how the sport has influenced breeding, and the description of American trotting goes back to the day when “Boston Blue,” in 1818, trotted a mile in three minutes, “a feat deemed impossible” at that period! The English race meetings, in which American owners and jockeys now play so conspicuous a part, are described in special sections, as well as the training at Newmarket. RIDING (Vol. 23, p. 317), and DRIVING (Vol. 8, p. 585), are by practical experts, and TRACTION (Vol. 27, p. 118) contains an interesting table analyzing the draft power of the horse. The section on Arab horses in the article ARABIA (Vol. 2, p. 261) should be read, for it adds to the information, in the articles already named, on the breed that has influenced every variety of horse. MULE (Vol. 18, p. 959) will tell you about the varieties not only in the United States and Mexico, but also in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Algeria and North China. The section on Hybrids (Vol. 13, p. 713) of the article HORSE deals with all the attempts that have been made to get a perfect type of mule by introducing various strains of blood. [Sidenote: Sheep and the Wool Market] SHEEP (Vol. 24, p. 817) contains separate descriptions of the 28 best breeds, discussing their values both for wool and for the meat trade. Breeding, feeding, dipping and lambing are fully treated. Sheepdogs and other breeds useful to the stock-raiser fall under the article DOG (Vol. 8, p. 374). WOOL (Vol. 28, p. 805), by Professor Aldred Barker, is an article in which you will at once be impressed by the splendid thoroughness that is characteristic of the Britannica. It goes to the very foundation of the subject by giving you microscopic photographs, on a scale of 320 to 1, of each of the six great varieties of wool, and explaining the structure of the fibres. The article FIBRES (Vol. 10, p. 309) will enable you to compare another microscopic photograph of wool fibre with similar pictures of silk, flax, cotton, jute, and other textile materials. The article wool deals next with wool-yolk and wool-fat, and then goes on to show why greasy wool is better than wool washed before shearing. Wool classing and sorting are next described, and then scouring. From this point the treatment of wool hardly comes within the jurisdiction of the sheep-man, although he cannot know too much about the qualities of the yarns obtained from different kinds of wool. It is interesting to note in this article that the first fulling mill in America was built at Rowley, Mass., in 1643, only thirty-four years after the first sheep was brought to America, and only twenty-three years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. [Sidenote: Pigs and Pork] The article SWINE (Vol. 26, p. 236) deals with the swine family in general, and the article PIG (Vol. 21, p. 594), containing a fine full-page plate, gives a detailed account of the breeds most profitable on the farm, including the Poland-China, the Berkshire, the Duroc, and the Chester White. Eleven breeds in all are particularized. The breeding and fattening of hogs, although it is now successfully followed as a distinct branch of the live-stock industry, must always remain in great part a mere branch of general farming; for the pig’s power of thriving on many kinds of food, enables the farmer to utilize produce that cannot advantageously be shipped, and to keep his pigs following his cattle over the fields. Much information will be found all through the article AGRICULTURE (Vol. 1, p. 388). TRICHINOSIS (Vol. 27, p. 266) deals with a disease that has sometimes seriously affected the pork market, and been made the excuse, too, for some very harsh restrictions on American exportation. [Sidenote: Diseases and Parasites of Live-stock] You will find in the Britannica (Vol. 28, p. 6) a very full and clear account of the diseases of all domestic animals, by Dr. Fleming and Professor McQueen, with special sections on the maladies of the horse, of cattle, of sheep, and of pigs, and on the parasites that infest them. TUBERCULOSIS (Vol. 27, p. 354) calls for special study, for it is a “disease of civilization” almost unknown among wild animals in their natural state and among the uncivilized races of mankind. The connection between the disease in cattle and its spread among human beings is fully explained in this article. PLEURO PNEUMONIA (Vol. 21, p. 838) deals with the lung disease from which cattle are the only sufferers, RINDERPEST (Vol. 23, p. 348), with the infectious fever which affects both cattle and sheep, and ANTHRAX (Vol. 2, p. 106), with the terribly infectious carbuncles communicated from cattle and sheep to man by the microbes carried in wool and hides. GLANDERS (Vol. 12, p. 76) describes the form in which this disease of horses and mules afflicts human beings, the symptoms and course of which, in the animals themselves, fall under the subject of horse diseases (Vol. 28, p. 8). The microbe by which this disease is carried is shown in the plate facing one of the pages (Vol. 20, p. 770) of the article PARASITIC DISEASES. FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE (Vol. 10, p. 617) afflicts cattle, sheep, and pigs, and occasionally human beings. Among the articles on continents and countries which contain special information on stock-raising, you should not miss the interesting general review of the European live-stock industry in the article EUROPE (Vol. 9, p. 914), the section on live-stock in CANADA (Vol. 5, p. 153), that in ARGENTINA (Vol. 2, p. 465), in AUSTRALIA (Vol. 2, p. 950), and in NEW ZEALAND (Vol. 19, p. 627) The history of stock-raising is fully treated at the beginning of the article AGRICULTURE (Vol. 1, p. 388). [Sidenote: How to “Even Up”] When you have read the articles mentioned in the three parts of this chapter on Farming, do not turn away with the idea that you have got from the Britannica all that it can give you to help you in your business. Remember that you have to judge men, as well as live-stock, in order to succeed, and that general knowledge is of the greatest use in doing that. The one sure sign of the kind of man you cannot rely upon is that he talks confidently about subjects of which he really knows little, and the more you yourself know, the more readily you can detect the pretentious people who might make you think too well of them. If you turn over the pages of this guide, and ask yourself, as you glance at the chapters, in what departments of general knowledge you are weakest, you will see what courses of reading will do most to make you an “evened up” man, without any weak threads in your intellectual texture. And, whatever you read, do not forget that the Britannica is a book of reference as well as for reading: that you are debasing your mind every time you leave unanswered any question that comes up in the course of the day’s work or talk, or while you are reading your newspaper. A vigorous mind wants an answer whenever it becomes conscious of a question or of a doubt, and if you fail to feed it with the information it asks for, it loses health. Now that you have the Britannica, the food is in the store-room, do not leave it there! [_See list of articles on subjects connected with stock-raising and other branches of farming, at the end of Chapter III of this Guide._]