Rural Skills and Knowledge: General Livestock Information

Purpose

In 1840 approximately 89% of the American people lived in rural areas of the country. These "country folk" had the skills and knowledge necessary to supply and/or make most of their food and clothes, tools and shelter, furniture and amusements. They raised crops for food and fodder, cared for livestock, used tools we never knew existed to do things we never knew needed doing. And sometimes, they wrote down their thoughts and knowledge and published them for others.

Since 1840 people have been leaving the farms and heading for the cities, until today there are 89% of us living in urban areas. The skills and knowledge it took to be self sufficient have been lost to us as we have become more and more dependent on modern cities, just in time deliveries, and "super stores". Our great grandparents probably did a wider variety of things before breakfast than we do all day long.

Copyright laws in the U.S. are such that everything published before 1923 is now in the Public Domain, and with the advent of the internet and electronic media, many of those books from the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s are store online in giant archives in all sorts of formats, made available at the click of a mouse button. This blog is for the purpose of making this knowledge more available.

To download these files, click on link and RIGHT CLICK on the type of file you wish to have and "save" to your computer. Mac users: Click on link, hold down the "control" key, then click as above and save to your mac.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

General Livestock Information

Although there are many more books in every category I have listed so far, I thought we would move into some other categories before we repeat. In the 1800s almost everyone that lived outside (and sometimes those that lived inside) a city had animals of some kind. From a herd of sheep, to a few pigs or chickens, to a single milk cow. The next three books are general livestock selections. Each one covers several popular animals and their care and upkeep.

The Livestock of the Farm, published in 1886, covers breeding and feeding, then specifically discusses cattle, sheep, horses, swine and poultry. It breaks each section down by types and then care of the animals, giving quite a good manual of management for each kind of livestock.

Horse, Cattle, Sheep and Swine, published in 1888, gives in-depth descriptions of each breed of livestock, including incredible illustrations, and then proceeds to give some detail on the selection and management of each kind. For instance, he includes 24 different breeds of cattle, and about 15 breeds of sheep.

Conkey's Stock Book, from 1911, also covers horses, cattle, sheep and swine inclusive, but begins with general care and feeding, and then discusses each type of livestock. This book includes some general vetrinary advice on each animal as well, and is broken down in to sections that are easier to distinguish than the other books.

I think poultry shall be the next topic, since as livestock goes, most people are more likely to have poultry than pigs in their backyards.