1st Edition

A History of British Livestock Husbandry, 1700-1900

By Robert Trow-Smith Copyright 2006
392 Pages
by Routledge

392 Pages
by Routledge

392 Pages
by Routledge

First Published in 2005. History books have told us for far too long that farming in Britain was, in the eighteenth century, Tull's drill, Townshend's turnips, and Bakewell's metamorphosis of the cow and sheep; in the nineteenth century, corn laws, Coke's enlightened Norfolk squire-dom, and the collapse of the cereal market; and in both centuries, enclosures. In this volume the author has taken... Read more

HISTORY OF BRITISH LIVESTOCK: R TROW-SMITH:

CONTENTS

PREFACE ix

1. PASTORAL BRITAIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 1

Sources; Scottish cattle economy; Welsh livestock; the south-west; Home Counties fattening industry; dairy farming; intensive veal production; evolving breeds of cattle; management of the dairy cow; the beef beast; ailments of cattle; sheep husbandry; early eighteenth century swine; the farm horse

2, THE WORK OF ROBERT BAKEWELL 45

The longhorn improvement; breeding the ideal animal; Bakewell’s contemporaries; the New Leicester sheep; crossing the New Leicester

3. THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 1: FODDER CROPS AND CATTLE 70

The turnip husbandry; carrots and potatoes; clover stands; cabbages for fodder; advent of the oilcake; demand for better cattle; a national breed of Longhorns; prototypes of the Shorthorn; the Devon breed; other south-western types; the red cattle of Hereford, Sussex and Norfolk; the English polls; Welsh cattle; the Scottish breeds; Alderney imports; transhumance

4. THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 2: SHEEP, PIGS AND HORSES 121

The south-western breeds; the new Southdown; the Norfolk and the new Suffolk; the Ryeland and its cousins; the sheep of Wales; the Cheviot advance; the Linton race; the family of longwools; pockets of archaic stock in Scotland; Merino experiments; the eighteenth century pig; Shire, Clydesdale and Suffolk horses

5. THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 3: THE TECHNIQUES OF CATTLE HUSBANDRY 163

Rearing the calf; finishing the beef; Irish, Welsh and Scottish supplies; plow oxen; management of the dairy herd; the urban cowkeeper; milk yields; ailments and their treatment; stock housing; profits and losses

6. THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 4: MANAGEMENT OF THE SHEEP AND PIG 196 Tupping the ewe; treatment of the lamb; lambing rates; the mountain flock; ewe milking; the wool clip; sheep houses and equipment; ailments of the sheep; profits from the flock; pig husbandry; management of the farm horse

7. DEVELOPMENT OF THE LIVESTOCK MARKET 224

Trade in Scots and Welsh beast; London and provincial fatstock markets; sheep marts; the Irish trade

8. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 1: PERFECTING BRITISH BREEDS OF CATTLE 233

The Shorthorn improvement; Scottish and other Shorthorns; the black breeds of Scotland; English red beef beast; Welsh cattle types; the achievement in beef; the milch breeds; arrival of the Friesian

9. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 2: SHEEP, PIGS AND HORSES 268

The Leicester and the longwools; the Cheviot and Blackface rivalry; the Southdown and the new Down breeds; the West Midland complex; the Merino experiment; productivity of sheep breeds; pigs in the melting pot; nineteenth century horses

10. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 3 LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT AND MARKETS 298

The new science of nutrition; nutrition in farm Practice; the much herd; mechanical milking; products of the dairy farm; feeding beef; new buildings for stock; the veterinary revolution; sheep husbandry; new competitors in the meat market

LIST OF PRINCIPAL SOURCES 327

INDEX 341

Biography

Robert Trow-Smith