H. SETTEGAST: THE SCIENCE OF FEEDING DOMESTIC LIVESTOCK. WITH 27 WOODCUTS [1874].

Description

We present the first Polish edition of a fundamental textbook on zoology and agriculture by Hermann Settegast (1819-1908) – German agronomist, Royal Privy Councillor, Director of the Royal Academy in Proskau. The publication was published in 1874 by the Booksellers Publishing Company in Warsaw (a consortium of Gebethner and Wolff, Michal Glücksberg, Maurycy Orgelbrand, G. Sennewald, E. Wende). The book was translated from German by Ludwik Bogucki (1829-1906), an agronomist and popularizer of agricultural knowledge.

The work is a compendium of knowledge on rational feeding of livestock, based on the latest scientific achievements of the 19th century. The author discusses the principles of feeding horses, cattle, sheep and pigs, taking into account the composition of feeds, their nutritional value and their effect on the health and performance of animals. The publication is enriched with 27 woodcuts in the text, illustrating the issues discussed.

The translator, Ludwik Bogucki, was a prominent figure in Polish agriculture – he studied in Leipzig and Halle, and then farmed on his own estate, implementing modern methods of cultivation and breeding. He was also a contributor to “Gazeta Rolnicza” and “Tygodnik Rolniczy.”

This is the first Polish edition. It appears sporadically on the antiquarian market . It is a must-have for the collector of agricultural literature, the historian of agronomy and anyone who wants to learn the basics of rational animal nutrition from a historical perspective.