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.
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.
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.
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.
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).