1st Edition

A History of British Livestock Husbandry, 1700-1900

By Robert Trow-Smith Copyright 2006
    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 the evidence, sieved and analysed it. The result of the analysis may, or may not, show the animal husbandry at least of these two centuries in a truer light. The present book is a sequel to the author’s History of British Livestock Husbandry to 1700.

    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