300 



FIG. 1. 



CALF'S TEETH AT 

 BIRTH. 



"It will probably be conceded, that persons 

 who are concerned with the breeding and feed- 

 ing of animals are not always free from risk of 

 error, and it certainly can be proved by the 

 logic of facts that all are not scrupulously exact 

 in such matters as the statement of an animal's 

 age. It therefore becomes necessary to supple- 

 ment or correct the exhibitor's certificate, by 



such evidence as the 

 animal itself affords; 

 and by common con- 

 sent, the periodical 

 changes to which 

 the teeth are sub- 

 ject, are accepted as 

 indications of age, 

 only second in value 

 to positive proof of 

 the date of the ani- 

 mal's birth. 



"How far the cul- 

 tivation of breeds, 

 by artificial selec- 

 tion and high feed- 

 ing, has influenced 

 the development of 

 the teeth, in com- 

 mon with other organs connected with nutritive 

 functions, can only be inferred from the great 

 difference which exists between the accounts of 

 the older veterinary writers on dentition of ani- 

 mals and the facts which are familiar to the 

 few experts of this generation who have taken 

 the trouble to investigate the subject for them- 

 selves. 



"In this country the most popular writer on 

 veterinary science was Mr. Youatt, whose works 

 on the horse, ox, sheep and pig were published 

 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge. Youatt's remarks on the teeth are 

 copied almost verbatim from M. Girard's work 

 on dentition ; and it may be without hesitation 

 asserted, that if Girard's description of the 

 teeth of the ox, sheep and pig were correct at 

 the time when they were written, an improved 

 system of breeding and feeding must have oc- 

 casioned a very remarkable change in the rate 

 of development of the teeth. In the year 1850 

 I commenced some investigations on the ani- 

 mals which were bred on the Royal Agricul- 

 tural College Farm, for the common purposes of 

 supplying milk and meat, and not especially for 

 purposes of exhibition. The cattle on the farm 

 were chiefly Shorthorns, the sheep were Cots- 

 wolds, and the pigs Berkshires, and none of the 

 animals were at that time referred to as pedi- 

 gree stock, nor were they fed on the forcing 

 system. The observations of the first few 



months of 1850 sufficed to establish the fact 

 that the teeth of cattle, sheep and swine were 

 developed at much earlier periods than those 

 which were stated in Youatt's remarks, copied 

 from Girard. 



"From the animals on the college farm the 

 inquiry was extended to Mr. Stratton's valu- 

 able stock near Swindon, and to Mr. Kearsey's 

 ram flock at Rodmarten. Among the more 

 highly cultivated animals on these farms the 

 process of dentition was not found to be more 

 forward than among the stock on the college 

 farm; and it is not generally more forward at 

 the present time, after an intervening period of 

 over thirty years of high feeding and careful 

 breeding, in the improved races of cattle, sheep 

 and swine than it was then. 



"The contention of exhibitors is, that excep- 

 tional development is so frequent during denti- 

 tion as to disturb any calculations which are 

 based on a rule. In reply it may be stated that 

 the most competent observers do not accept that 

 view. On the contrary they are aware that the 

 alleged exceptions do not often bear a critical 

 investigation. Numerous inquiries have from 

 time to time been made in compliance with the 

 urgent demands of owners of disqualified ani- 

 mals, and those who have -been most sedulous in 

 searching for the truth are aware- how vague 

 and incomplete the evidence in support of the 

 owner's certificate has been in most cases. Not 

 uncommonly the entry has been proved to be 

 incorrect, and in the few cases where the de- 

 cision of the expert 

 has been reversed, it 

 has been done, only, 

 on the plea that the 

 exhibitor should 

 have the benefit of 

 the doubt. 



"Whenever a con- 

 siderable number of 

 disqualifications oc- 

 cur at the principal 

 agricultural shows, 

 the aggrieved ex- 

 hibitors avail them- 

 selves of the aid of 

 the press to vindi- 

 cate their systems of 



recording the ages of their animals, and to show 

 how impossible it is for any mistake to happen. 

 In no case, however, within my own recollec- 

 tion, have any useful facts been brought to 

 light as the result of these periodical effusions. 



"On the occasion of the exhibition of the 

 Smithfield Club in 1881 several pens of pigs 

 were disqualified, and some of the .exhibitors 



3T205 



FIG. 



2. CALF'S TEETH AT 

 SECOND WEEK. 



