Book VII. ECONOMY OF LIFE STOCK. 949 



their proper names. Besides, weeds which abound most, and are most injurious in one 

 district, are often rare in another. Thus, the poppy abounds in gravelly districts, the 

 charlocks on clays, the chickweed, groundsel, nettle, &c, only on rich soils. A local 

 Flora, or any of the national Floras, as Lightfoot's Flora Scotica, and Smith's British 

 Flora, and, we may be allowed to add, our own Encyclopcedia of Plants and Hortus 

 Britannicus, by pointing out the habits of indigenous plants, may be of considerable 

 use to the agriculturist who has acquired a slight degree of the science of botany. 



BOOK VII. 



THE ECONOMY OF LIVE STOCK AND THE DAIRY. 



6213. The grand characteristic of modem British farming, and that which constitutes 

 its greatest excellence, is the union of the cultivation of live stock with that of vegetables. 

 Formerly in this country, and in most other countries, the growing of corn and the 

 rearing of cattle and sheep constituted two distinct branches of farming ; and it was 

 a question among writers, as, according to Von Tliaer, it still is in Germany, which was 

 the most desirable branch to follow. The culture of roots and herbage crops at last led 

 gradually to the soiling or stall-feeding husbandry, in imitation of the Flemings ; and 

 afterwards, about the middle of the last century, to the alternate husbandry, which is 

 entirely of British invention, and has been more effectually than any thing else the means 

 of improving the agriculture of the districts where it is practised. 



6214. It is observed by Brown, that " though horses, neat cattle, sheep, and swine are of equal importance 

 to the British farmer with corn crops, yet we have few treatises concerning the animals, compared with 

 the immense number that have been written on the management of arable land, or the crops produced upon 

 it But though so little has been written, the improvement of those animals has not been neglected ; on 

 the contrary, it has been studied like a science, and carried into execution with the most sedulous attention 

 and dexterity. We wish it could be stated, that one half of the care had been applied to the selecting and 

 breeding of wheat and other grains, which has been displayed in selecting and breeding the best propor- 

 tioned and most kindly feeding sheep. A comparison cannot, however, be made with the slightest degree 

 of success; the exertions of the sheep-farmers having, in every point of view, far exceeded what has been 

 done by the renters of arable land. Even with cattle considerable improvement has taken place. With 

 horses, those of the racing and hunting kinds excepted, there has not been correspondent improvement ; 

 and as to swine, an animal of great benefit to the farmer, in consuming offal which would otherwise be of 

 no value, it is to be regretted that very much remains to be done." 



6215. The first important effort in the improvement of live stock was made by Robert BaVewell, who was 

 born on his father's estate of Dishley, in 1726. Mr. Bakewell wrote nothing himself; so the first scientific 

 work on the subject was written by George Culley, in 1782, who had formed himself on Bakewell's model. 

 The systematic improvements of Mr. Bakewell were developed in various agricultural reports, and con- 

 sisted in attempts to lessen such parts of the animal frame of cattle and sheep as were least useful to man, 

 as bone, cellular substance, and appendages ; at the same time increasing such other parts, as flesh or muscle, 

 and fat, as become more important in the furnishing man with food. These ends he endeavoured to 

 accomplish by a judicious selection of individuals, possessing the wished-for form and qualities in the 

 greatest degree; which being perpetuated in their progeny in various proportions, and the selection being 

 continued from the most approved specimens among these, enabled him at length to establish breeds with 

 the desired properties. Later improvements have been grafted on these, and we find excellent observations 

 on the subject from the pens of Cline, Dr. Coventry, Sir J. Sebright, Hunt of Leicester, and the Rev. 

 H. Berry ; and we have witnessed the strenuous and successful efforts of a Russell, a Coke, an Elhnan, 

 and others. The improvement in the sciences of comparative anatomy and physiology has also led to an 

 amended practice both in breeding and in pathology. The example of various opulent proprietors and 

 farmers in all parts of the empire tended to spread this improvement, by which the pursuit became 

 fashionable. Add to these the accounts of the management of live stock in almost every county of the 

 British Isles, as contained in Marshal's Works and the County Reports. From these sources we shall draw 

 the information we are about to submit, and shall adopt the arrangement of the horse, the ass, the mule 

 and hinny, the bull family and the dairy, the sheep, the swine, minoi stock, and injurious animals or 

 vermin. 



Chap. I. 



The cultivated Horse. — E\uus Cabdllus L. ; Mammalia Bellu<e L., and Pachydermes 

 Solipedes Cuvier. Cheval, Fr. ; Pferde, Ger. ; Cavallo, Ital. ; and Caballo, Span. 



6216. The horse family, by far the most important among the brute creation as a 

 servant to man, includes several species both in a wild and cultivated state, as the iTquus 

 .Hemionus, or wild mule, a native of Arabia and China, and which it is supposed would 

 form an excellent race of small horses, could they be reduced to a state of domestication ; 

 the E. ^sinus, or ass, well known ; the E. Zebra-, or striped ass ; the E. Qudgga, by some 

 considered a variety of the zebra; and the E. bisfilcus, or cloven- footed horse, a native of 

 Chile, and bv many supposed to belong to a distinct genus. 



