Papers relating to sheep husbandry, 1828-1829

B 449 ; B 450 ; B 451

fonds

1828-1829

441565

Microfilm : CY 3521 (B 449 - B 451)

3 volumes - 0.05 Meters
Textual Records - (manuscript)

VOLUME 1 (B 449)
First Volume on Sheep Husbandry [on title page]
Development of the principles of sheep husbandry as practised in the best flocks of Germany with particular reference to the growth of fine wool in New South Wales, Althaldensleben near Magdeburg in Prussia, 28 May 1828 [on reverse of title page]
Introduction
Chapter 1 History
Chapter 2 [Varieties of sheep]
Chapter 3 Science of breeding, principles of breeding as applied to the selection of parents
Chapter 4 Generation birth & rearing
Chapter 5 Pastures
Chapter 6 Of mixed or cross-bred sheep
Chapter 7 Registers
Chapter 8 Diseases of sheep
Schedules 1-4: Registers of tupping, valuation before and after the clip, and of births

VOLUME 2 (B 450)
Second Volume on Wool and its Characteristic properties [title page]
Chapter 1 On the essential qualities of wool
Chapter 2 Wool considered in the staple and in the fleece, classification and valuation of the fleece
Chapter 3 The wash, clip and putting up of the fleece
Chapter 4 The wool trade

VOLUME 3 (B 451)
Includes descriptions of quantity of seed, culture of saffron in Austria & France, soil preparation, treatment of saffron, harvesting; cultivation of lucerne and tobacco (near Magdeburg), planting, hoeing, harvesting, drying and tying.
Tables on the progressive increase in Saxons over 20 years from 1826, and Colonial Ewes over 10 years.
Memorandum in reference to details on the Saxon and Colonial Sheep
[Estimated] Return of sheep 1st June 1828 to 1st June 1832
[Estimated] Account of expenditure and income upon sheep stock in Australia appended to Returns, 1829 to 1832 "at the request of a gentleman proceeding to the Colony with a limited capital and who wishes to know how much he might safely vest in sheep".

The pages within the volume have been folded in half with the majority of the text written on the half of the page closest to the centre or spine.
Printed label at back of volumes 1 and 3, "Griffiths, / Bookseller & Stationer / 71 Seymour Street / Euston Square / Books neatly and elegantly bound."
"D.S. Mitchell" on front endpaper of each volume.

The main hand in the three volumes appears to be that of a copyist, possibly in preparation for publication. A different and distinctive hand appears on the title page and also the schedules at the back of Volume 1. This hand is almost certainly that of Alexander Riley, who lived at Euston Square, London (see also the stationer's labels pasted on the inside back covers of Volumes 1 and 3). The main author of the text could be William Hampden Dutton (1807-1849) who selected 200 pure-bred Saxon merinos for Alexander Riley and worked with Riley's brother Edward on his sheep station at Raby in 1827. In 1828, when the notebooks were written, Dutton made an agricultural tour through Switzerland and Germany. Back in Australia in 1830, he managed Raby for Alexander Riley who was still in England.