DENTITION 



AS INDICATIVE OF THE 



AGE OF THE ANIMALS OF THE FARM. 



Introductory. 



Judging the age by the teeth is an ancient art, the origin of 

 which may perhaps be dated back to the time of the domestica- 

 tion of the horse — an animal which, for commercial and economic 

 reasons, must have attracted more attention than those which 

 were used for food. In modern times the system was extended 

 to other animals of the farm, as appears from the older veteri- 

 nary writers on dentition, among them M. Girard, whose obser- 

 vations and illustrations were copied by Youatt, and from his 

 book by more recent writers. 



There is a general belief among stock-owners that the im- 

 provement which has taken place in the various breeds of farm 

 animals, as the result of careful breeding and feeding, has led 

 to early maturity of the teeth, as well as of other organs and 

 tissues "^of the body. For this idea, Girard, and after him Youatt 

 and other writers, are certainly responsible. According to them, 

 cattle do not get the full set of broad teeth until they are four 

 or five years old, sheep at four years old, and swine at three 

 years old. But when the writer of this paper, with these views 

 in his mind, commenced an inquiry on dentition in 1850, he 

 soon-found out how very wide of the truth they were. Cattle 

 bred on the Royal Agricultural College Farm had their denti- 

 tion perfectly complete in most cases under three years and a 

 half, in many instances soon after three years, and, in one case, 

 at two years and ten months. Sheep had their full complement 

 of teeth at three years, and pigs soon after one year and a half. 

 All the animals on the farm were of the average quality — 



A 2 



iii,'^^70Rl 



