Alfred Charles True

“ Austria-Hungary, only about half a century from serfdom, has a government that fosters agriculture, and presents the sharp contrasts illustrated by the steam cultivator on large estates and the wooden plow on small farms. ”

“ The marvelous success of scientific effort, largely under government patronage, as applied to dairying and the sugar-beet industry, is one of the notable achievements of that century. Organized scientific research for the benefit of agriculture through experiment stations and kindred institutions has become a regular and permanent agency for the advancement of this art. ”

“ The discovery of the New World showed two grades of agriculture carried on by those who had never seen the horse and were practically without domestic animals. Even the careful tillage of the ancient Peruvian had no influence upon Europe and little upon the America of succeeding centuries. The great contribution of America to the world's agriculture was the three plants, the potato, tobacco, and Indian corn or maize. In the region north of Mexico the labor of planting and caring for the scanty crops was performed by the women, who broke the ground with the rudest possible implements. ”

“ The most important results of man's agency in improving cattle by breeding, care, and management have been a tendency of the animals to mature at an earlier age, and readily to lay on flesh and fat, and an increase of the milk-production far beyond the needs of the calf, and prolongation of the natural period of milk-flow. At the present time the various recognized breeds of domestic cattle may be classified in a general way as beef cattle and dairy cattle. ”

“ Such occupations as breeding livestock, raising poultry, bee-keeping, and fish culture are also pursued independently of general agriculture. The term agriculture has, therefore, been gradually restricted to the production of a limited group of plants and animals, such as may be brought together on single farms in a system of mixed husbandry. The particular animals and plants included in agriculture in this narrower sense will vary with the region and a variety of circumstances. ”

“ Within the last two centuries especially, much attention has been paid to selecting and breeding cattle adapted to special conditions and purposes, and to developing the beef and milk producing qualities. It is stated that there are now in various parts of the world over one hundred distinct breeds of cattle. The principal and most valuable breeds of America have been derived from Great Britain and other portions of northwestern Europe. ”

“ The garden of Italy is the Lombard plain, with its more than 1,000,000 acres of irrigated land and its careful systems of cultivation. Besides large crops of wheat, maize, grapes, and olives, Italy produces great quantities of lemons and oranges, and has more than half a million people engaged in raising silkworms. In Spain, despite vines, oranges, olives, and the possibilities of irrigation and a succession of crops, agriculture looks backward to the time of the Moor. ”

“ In the modern dairy cow the tendency to lay on flesh, so highly developed in beef animals, has been largely eliminated, and in its place the ability to convert economically the food eaten into milk has been cultivated in a high degree. Continued breeding to a special purpose has changed the former short milking period, limited almost to the pasture season, to a comparatively even flow of milk during ten or eleven months of every year. A cow that does not average six or seven quarts of milk a day for 300 days in the year, aggregating 4000 pounds, is not considered very profitable. ”

“ Of the world's wheat crop of about 2613 million bushels, the United States produces nearly one-fifth. The other chief wheat growing countries are Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, India, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Argentine Republic. The United States produces three-fourths of the world's maize crop of 2825 million bushels, and more than one-half of the crop of 753.3 million pounds of cotton. Russia leads the world in the piodnotion of rye, oats, and barley, and in the yield of potatoes it is surpassed by Germany only. ”

“ There are good and bad examples of the beef type among all the breeds, and it is more important that the animal should approach the beef type in conformation and development, and be so bred as to fatten readily and slaughter to good advantage, than that he should belong to any particular breed. ”

“ Agriculture began in prehistoric times, when primitive man first began to select particular plants in his immediate environment as preferable to others for his use as food or for making his clothes, and when he first directed his efforts toward promoting the growth of plants. ”

“ The cows are large and persistent milkers, but the milk is not particularly rich, and the fat-globules are small, which causes the cream to rise slowly. An average yield of 5500 pounds of milk a year per cow for a working herd is often realized. One noted herd has an average for nineteen years of over 6400 pounds per cow, and individuals produce 10,000 and even 12,000 pounds a year. Butter records are not numerous, but herds average 300 to 400 pounds a year, and there are individual records of as high as 600 pounds. ”

“ Scientific studies and experiments for the benefit of agriculture began with the development of agricultural chemistry early in the century. The most widespread practical result of the investigations in agricultural chemistry has been the extensive use of a large number of forms of commercial fertilizers. In more recent years a wide range of successful research on behalf of agriculture has been developed with the aid of the biological sciences, and in the closing years of the nineteenth century investigations in agricultural physics assumed great importance. ”

“ At home the average cow is expected to produce 5000 pounds of milk and 300 pounds of butter a year without high feeding. In the United States they are usually fed higher, and respond accordingly. There are records of several herds which have averaged over 6000 pounds of milk and 350 pounds of butter a year. Individual cows have produced 10,000, and nearly 13,000 pounds, of milk, and 500 to 700 pounds of butter a year. The Jerseys are the smallest of the better dairy breeds, though in the United States they have been considerably increased in size. ”

“ Roman agriculture has received special attention because so much was written about it by the Romans themselves, and because they carried it into other countries, where it modified or dominated agricultural customs. ”

“ The breeds of dairy cattle most common in the United States and England at the present time are Ayrshire, Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey, Red Poll, and Shorthorns. The Ayrshires, named for the county of that name in the southwest of Scotland, are medium-sized cows, short-legged, fine-boned, and very active. The general form is the wedge shape, regarded as typical of cows of dairy excellence, and good specimens are thin when in milk. ”

“ Egyptian Agriculture. In tracing the development of agriculture in historical times we naturally turn first to Egypt, the motherland of our civilization. The records preserved on ancient monuments allow us to trace the history of agriculture in Egypt back to at least 3000 B.C. At that early time various animals had already become domesticated, and the growing of crops for man and beast by a regular system of tillage and irrigation had been united with the feeding of large numbers of animals on the ranges. ”

“ Although unsurpassed as beef cattle, many of the cows are good milkers, the best of any of the strictly beef breeds. The Herefords, originated in the county of Hereford, may be described as red with white on face, chest, belly, feet, and over the tops of the shoulders. They are close rivals or the equals of Shorthorns as beef cattle. They are inferior dairy cattle, many giving scarcely enough milk to raise a calf. The Galloways are jet-black and hornless, strongly built and rather low in stature. They are hardy in constitution and much esteemed for beef, but very poor dairy cattle. ”

“ The vital interest of the whole community in the success of agriculture as the great basal industry has been distinctly recognized during the nineteenth century by the widespread establishment of governmental agencies for its promotion. Agriculture has now a definite place in the ministries of almost all the civilized nations of the globe. In Great Britain the government fosters agricultural interests through a Board of Agriculture (q.v.) . In the United States the Federal Government maintains a Department of Agriculture (q.v.) ”

“ The Red Polls are a comparatively new breed, resembling the Devons, hornless, and inclined to the beef form. They are only fair dairy cattle, being in the class of breeds which aim to serve the dual purpose of milk and beef production. The Shorthorns, described above as beef cattle, although a typical beef breed, are to some extent dual-purpose animals, and some families have been notable for milk-production. ”

“ In the hay harvest, horse power is applied by means of the mowing-machine, the hay-tedder, the rake, and machines for loading and unloading the hay. Another class of machines, as, for example, the one for threshing, deal with the gathered crops. The use of a system of machinery like that applied to dairying has made great changes in certain lines of agriculture. From horse power, too, there has been a partial change to steam power. About the year 1850 the steam plow began to be used in England. ”

“ Canada and the United States have a profitable apple trade with England. The expenses of transportation have been reduced to a fraction of the previous cost, and thus the wheat lands of Dakota have been laid alongside those of both New England and old England, with gain for the one and with loss for the others. In dairying there has been one of the triumphs of recent agriculture. Specialization, with scientific method and improved machinery, has brought excellence without destruction of the market. ”

“ The beef type of animals is rectangular in outline, low, broad, deep, smooth, and even—no wedge-shape or sharp protruding spinal column is wanted for the block. According to Curtis, “Broad, well-covered backs and ribs are absolutely necessary to a good carcass of beef, and no other excellences will compensate for the lack of this essential. It is necessary to both breed and feed for thickness in these parts. ”

“ Egypt, under the guidance of England, is producing great amounts of sugar and a high grade cotton.
Australasia has already developed beyond the pastoral stage, and besides cattle and sheep is exporting dairy and other products. In South America, the Argentine Republic is an important factor in the world's agricultural market, with its wheat, wool, cattle, and wine; and Brazil holds a leading place in the production of coffee. In Central America, including Mexico, the raising of cattle and sheep has become a large industry, and the exports of coffee, cocoa, and bananas are important. ”

“ The storing of green crops in silos has become common. A great amount of intelligent work has been given to securing plants and trees suited to local conditions in different climates. Numerous varieties of all sorts of cultivated plants have been obtained through selection and otherwise, and in this way the areas devoted to different crops have been greatly extended. In the vicinity of the large cities market gardening has been a profitable branch of agriculture, and has been the culmination of careful cultivation. ”

“ The cows are better milkers. The Devons are an exceedingly symmetrical, beautiful race, originated in North and South Devonshire. They are of a rich red color, and although the bulls and cows are rather small, the oxen grow to great size. The Devon oxen have long been prized as work animals. In regard to the relative merits of the different beef breeds no general conclusion can be safely stated. ”

“ The agricultural experiment stations have shown, however, that this is not the case, but that the value of milk for cheese-making as well as for butter-making is measured by its fat content. The richness of the milk in fat is to some extent a breed characteristic, although within the breed the variations in this respect are quite wide in the case of different cows. ”

“ China, with an agriculture unchanged from legendary times, and India are countries in which rude implements are overbalanced by irrigation and garden-like cultivation. With rice as a principal food product, they support a dense population, have a great variety of crops, and are increasing factors in computing the world's supply. ”

“ The practices of some aboriginal tribes at the present time indicate that efforts to promote the growth of useful plants by the removal of other plants growing among them antedates the planting of seeds. Similar evidence points to the beginning of agricultural implements in the use of pointed and forked sticks to scratch the soil or remove obnoxious vegetation. The union of two such sticks with a leathern thong made a rude mattock or hoe, and a larger implement of the same kind formed the primitive plow, which was drawn, very likely, at first by men and afterward by domesticated animals. ”