Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 208, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1911 — OLD TIME LIVE STOCK [ARTICLE]

OLD TIME LIVE STOCK

HOW IT WAS CARED FOR IN THS EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Ignorant Local Leeches Cared for Bide Cattle—Examplee of Intelligence of the Pig. Str Walter Gllbey has brought together a number of interesting facto concerning the live stock of the farm. Bleeding, the stock remedy tor equine ills of every kind, was practiced until comparatively recent times. The Essex farmers used to bleed their animals regularly In spring and autumn as late as the year 1835, and in some districts it was continued until about wo. But veterinary surgery did not embrace the study of cattle and sheep diseases at all. Treatment of sick cattle was referred to the local “leech,” who, to quote a wmer of the time, “knows as much of the diseases of animals as the beast to attend which he is sent for.” Arthur Young, writing in 1770, reckoned the total of cattle In England at over 2,800,000, Including 684,000 draught cattle. The fact that some 4 r 800,000 cattle are now owned In England Indicates the change In the cattle breeding industry during a hundred years. 'There are ho reliable figures. Sir Walter says, to show what the horse population was at that time. Apart from coaching, every country gentleman drove or rode in the good old days. The farmer and commercial traveler traveled on horseback* or drove a gig. Goods In out of the way parts of England were still carried on strings of pack horses. The Importance of the latter as a means of .transport Is shown by the old “pack horse” bridges still remaining over the streams in various parts of England. They are wide enough to allow a laden horse to pass, but too narrow for carts. Some curious examples are supplied by Sir Walter Gllbey of the Intelligence of the pig. One of the most remarkable examples is furnished by the famous “pig pointer,” a black sow, which two king's keepers in the new forest trained in a fortnight to find game, point and back almost as well as a pointer. The excellent scenting powers of the pig are, as Is well known, utilized by French truffle finders, who train young swine to find the truffles, burled as they are In a few inches below the soil. They were used for this purpose In England also. Si? Walter states; Lord Braybrooke kept truffle hunting pigs some fifty years ago. Geese have gone somewhat out of fashion In these days, but formerly they were held to be the most profit able kind of poultry. They were raised in vast numbers in the Lincolnshire fens. Pennant says that a single parson would keep as many as a thousand old birds, each of which raising seven goslings the owner at the year's end would find himself master of a flock of 8,000 birds. In the great tracks of fenland, before they were drained, over a thousand persons made their living out ot geese. The profit of goose keeping lay In the practice of plucking. The value of the goose feathers was estimated at about a shilling a head a year and three-pence more for the quills at that time In general demand for pens.