NA TURE 



657 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1908. 



FAR^r ANIMALS. 



Cyclopedia of American Agriculture. A Popular 

 Survey of Agricultural Conditions, Practices, and 

 Ideals in the United States and Canada. Edited 

 by.L. H. Bailey. Vol. iii., Animals. Pp. xvi + 7oS. 

 (New York : The Macmillan Co. ; London : Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 190S.) Price 2ii-. net. 



THE third volume of this important " Cyclopedia of 

 .Agriculture " — the volume dealing with animals 

 ■ — reflects in a remarkable manner the varying 

 standards to which agricultural knowledge has at- 

 tained in individual sections of the subject. In the 

 sections hitherto most amenable to experiment and 

 research a v'ast amount of information of an accurate 

 and trustworthy character has been accumulated. 

 .Much of this information may be beyond the farmer's 

 capacity to utilise; some of it ma\- have been de- 

 veloped on lines which were not always as useful as 

 the experimenters expected and claimed; but time 

 and experience always tend to bring the experi- 

 menter in the laboratory and the operator in the 

 field into closer and closer touch, and so to rub off 

 the eccentricities of each. On the other hand, in 

 the sections concerned with breeding and selection, 

 and with the evolution of different types of stock, our 

 knowledge is still in a very nebulous condition, even 

 though in these sections agriculturists have oper- 

 ated with, perhaps, the greatest apparent success. 

 In dealing with such subjects, writers are still too 

 apt to lay the foundations of their work in unques- 

 tioned beliefs and unsubstantiated opinions. Such 

 expressions as " it is supposed," " it is believed," 

 " it is said," " it has been thought," appear in this 

 volume, as in most other books upon the same sub- 

 ject, with too great frequency. It is unfortunate 

 that, instead of emulating the patience and thorough- 

 ness of such authors as Youatt and Low, our recent 

 writers on live stock have taken to a style that may 

 be descriptively interesting, but is often inaccurate, 

 sometimes even slip-shod, and leads to no abiding 

 result. 



The editor of this encyclopedia realises the un- 

 satisfactory nature of this part of the work compared 

 with the other part based upon long-continued ex- 

 periment and research, and his words are well worth 

 quoting : — 



" Contrary to his e.xpectation, the editor has found 

 the compilation of this volume much more difficult 

 than the making of the volume on crops. Animals 

 are less tractable to investigate than plants, and the 

 scientific method does not seem to have been so suc- 

 cessfully applied to the study of them as to crops. 

 In the matter of breeds, the expert knowledge is 

 likely to be in possession of advocates or even of 

 partisans, and it is very difticult to arrive at agree- 

 ment or a common basis of comparison and judg- 

 rnent. Existing writings are largely descriptive and 

 historical. Even on questions of feeding and general 

 management, there are almost irreconcilable" differ- 

 ences of opinion. The editor hopes, however, that 

 the compilation has brought together the soundest 

 NO. 2035, VOL. 78] 



opinions and practices, and he is sure that the names 

 of the contributors to this volume will make the work 

 authoritative. The articles on breeds are largely 

 from men engaged in practice and from specialists 

 in the breed, whereas the articles on crops in vol. ii. 

 are largely from teachers and investigators ; this 

 dissimilarity is representative of the kinds of interest 

 that attach to these two groups of agricultural 

 produce." 



It would be almost impossible to overestimate the 

 value of the real scientific part of this volume, such, 

 for instance, as Armsby's chapter on the principles 

 of stock-feeding, the complementary chapters on 

 balancing rations, and the whole section dealing with 

 the manufacture of animal products, in which milk, 

 butter, cheese, meat, and even such things as hides 

 and leather are dealt with. There are very useful 

 and carefully written chapters on the physiology of 

 domestic animals, on infectious diseases of animals, 

 and on the .American invention of scoring'-cards in 

 stock-judging. 



The greater part of the work is taken up with a 

 description of North American farm animals, their 

 breeding, history, rearing, and general treatment 

 towards accomplishing the ends for which they are 

 intended. This part must be useful to a verv large 

 number of people, for it treats not only of horses, 

 cattle, sheep, and swine, but of dogs, goats, fish, 

 poultry, reindeer, and bison, and even of pigeons, 

 rabbits, cage-birds, and many other domestic pets. 



It is only in the parts of the book dealing with 

 the science of breeding and in the descriptions of 

 individual breeds that we would suggest amend- 

 ments. In so important a " Cyclopedia " as *his, one 

 expects the writers on breeding and heredity to go 

 beyond the Darwinian position and discuss the 

 illumination which the work of such men as Weis- 

 mann, De \'ries, and Mendel has afforded. One also 

 expects doubtful tlieories to be well sifted. For 

 instance, a reconstructed L'rus is labelled " Urus, 

 the source of domestic cattle." The question is no 

 doubt encompassed by many difficulties, but it would 

 be just about as easy to prove that the quagga is the 

 source of domestic horses. 



Perhaps the best way to indicate the kind of state- 

 ment to be found running through the breed de- 

 scriptions is to throw a few of them into the form 

 of interrogations while retaining the Writers' lan- 

 guage as far as possible, viz. : — • 



Did Hugh Watson declare himself for the " Black 

 and all black; the Angus Doddie, and no sur- 

 render "? Is Angusshire now a part of Forfarshire? 

 Did Watson's ancestors breed Angus cattle on the 

 Keillor farm for more than two hundred years before 

 1805? Did Hugh Watson begin to breed .Angus 

 cattle in 1S05? Are there Devon cattle in Ireland? 

 Is the Galloway the oldest of the pure breeds of 

 Britain? Is the Hereford among the oldest, if not 

 the oldest, established of the English breeds of 

 domestic cattle? Have Suffolk or polled cattle 

 existed in the county of Suffolk, England, from 

 time immemorial, and does the probability seem to 

 be that they were introduced soon after the Roman 

 occupation? Is the supposition correct that a Mr. 



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