brandonm_13
Well-known member
Just wondering if any of you have come across any interesting Ag books of the past? I have two.
The oldest was first printed in 1908. My copy is 1914. It is a Tennessee schools Agriculture book. My mom found it in an old stack of books somewhere and thought I would be interested. I was looking through it last night. The section on beef breeds was interesting. They only mentioned 4 beef breeds. All others were known as scrub cattle or dairy cattle. Since it was the turn of the century, there wasn't any continental influence. The breeds they had were Aberdeen-Angus. I think other names were black aberdeen's or polled black(no mention of anugs as the only name then.) They were rcognized as being slightly smaller than the hereford and shorthorn. The standard hereford cow at that time was 1500 lbs. The fourth breed, and the only one not to have really taken off, was the Red Polled cow (not Red Poll, but red Polled). It also mentioned that hereford cattle were almost twice the size of a Jersey cow. It said Jersey's were the most numerous cattle in teh United states. It also included Guernsey, stating they were slightly larger and more coarse, but butterfat was about equal. The Holstein Friesan(they didn't just use holstein and they actually gave a pronunciation for the holstein, but not the other two) was said to give more milk, although not very rich. it could give up to 10 gallons a day.
I think it's interesting that in 100 years, we've changed that much.
Herefords were at least 1500 lbs.
Jersey's were apparently even smaller than today, and were by far the most numerous.
Angus wasn't considered the "official" title of the cow
Holstein's had to be pronouced so apparently they weren't as well known as other cows.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The hand drawn picture of the ideal cow wasn't bad from a side view, but the ideal cow was supposed to be brick shaped. Lower quality cuts of meat and waste was supposed to be kept to a minimum, so necks were supposed to be very short(cheap meat).
If I remember anything else, Ill add it later.
The oldest was first printed in 1908. My copy is 1914. It is a Tennessee schools Agriculture book. My mom found it in an old stack of books somewhere and thought I would be interested. I was looking through it last night. The section on beef breeds was interesting. They only mentioned 4 beef breeds. All others were known as scrub cattle or dairy cattle. Since it was the turn of the century, there wasn't any continental influence. The breeds they had were Aberdeen-Angus. I think other names were black aberdeen's or polled black(no mention of anugs as the only name then.) They were rcognized as being slightly smaller than the hereford and shorthorn. The standard hereford cow at that time was 1500 lbs. The fourth breed, and the only one not to have really taken off, was the Red Polled cow (not Red Poll, but red Polled). It also mentioned that hereford cattle were almost twice the size of a Jersey cow. It said Jersey's were the most numerous cattle in teh United states. It also included Guernsey, stating they were slightly larger and more coarse, but butterfat was about equal. The Holstein Friesan(they didn't just use holstein and they actually gave a pronunciation for the holstein, but not the other two) was said to give more milk, although not very rich. it could give up to 10 gallons a day.
I think it's interesting that in 100 years, we've changed that much.
Herefords were at least 1500 lbs.
Jersey's were apparently even smaller than today, and were by far the most numerous.
Angus wasn't considered the "official" title of the cow
Holstein's had to be pronouced so apparently they weren't as well known as other cows.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The hand drawn picture of the ideal cow wasn't bad from a side view, but the ideal cow was supposed to be brick shaped. Lower quality cuts of meat and waste was supposed to be kept to a minimum, so necks were supposed to be very short(cheap meat).
If I remember anything else, Ill add it later.
