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A Treatise on Milch Cows, Whereby the Quality and Quantity of Milk Which Any Cow Will Give May Be Accurately Determined by Observing Natural Marks or ... Length of Time She Will Continue to Give Milk
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Mason's Farrier and Stud-Book. the Gentleman's New Pocket Farrier
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
John Stuart Skinner was an American agricultural editor and writer.
Background
He was born on February 22, 1788 in Calvert County, Maryland, United States, and spent his early years on the family plantation established by Robert Skinner, who emigrated from England in the early part of the seventeenth century. His father, Frederick, was an officer in the American Revolution and later managed his own plantation and one inherited by his wife, who was a sister of the well-known "Jack" Stuart, companion of Lafayette.
Education
Skinner was educated in local schools and at Charlotte Hall, a classical academy in St. Mary's County.
Career
At eighteen he became an assistant to the clerk of the county court and later began to study law at Annapolis. Here he was appointed reading clerk in the legislature and made a notary public for Annapolis by Governor Wright. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the bar.
Following the outbreak of the War of 1812, President Madison made him inspector of European mail at Annapolis, and he was also designated an agent for prisoners of war. Skinner successfully performed these responsible duties, incidentally making life-long friends among the British officers.
In 1813 his headquarters were removed to Baltimore, where, March 26, 1814, he was commissioned a purser in the navy, a position held throughout the war and for a number of years thereafter. While visiting the fleet of Admiral Cockburn, Skinner and Francis Scott Key were detained during a furious night bombardment of Fort McHenry, September 13-14, 1814, following which they were released and returned to Baltimore. From 1816 to 1837 he was postmaster at Baltimore.
In 1841 President Harrison appointed him third assistant postmaster general, in which capacity, through his attention to detail he was able, it is said, to reduce by $200, 000 the expenditures of the United States post office department. In 1845, under President Polk, he was removed from office for political reasons.
Skinner decided in 1819 to establish an agricultural paper, with a view to disseminating knowledge respecting the best methods of farm practice. Accordingly, on April 2, he offered to the public the initial number of the American Farmer, the issue being held over a day lest the paper be taken for an April Fool joke.
In August 1829 Skinner started the publication of the American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine. It was the first magazine of its kind in the United States. Finding the dual editorship too great a demand upon his time, he sold the American Farmer in 1830 for $20, 000, remaining thereafter an occasional contributor. In 1835 the American Turf Register was sold for $10, 000 to Gideon B. Smith, who, four years later, sold it to William Trotter Porter.
Greeley and McElrath, proprietors of the New York Tribune, engaged Skinner in 1845 to edit, in New York, the Farmers' Library and Monthly Journal of Agriculture, the first issue of which was dated July of that year.
Skinner bought the rights and established, at Philadelphia, a periodical of his own entitled The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil, the first number of which appeared in July 1848. The magazine soon attained wide popularity and Skinner continued as editor until his death.
In cooperation with officials of the Maryland Agricultural Society he established a stock farm a few miles from Baltimore, where the Society observed the scientific breeding of horses and mules, various types of cattle, Tunis sheep, and other animals. He was also active in developing the Western Shore branch of the Maryland Agricultural Society, and a society to improve the breed of horses.
At the time of General Lafayette's visit to Baltimore in 1824, Skinner arranged a special meeting of the Maryland Agricultural Society which Lafayette attended. The two became friends, corresponded extensively, and Skinner acted as business agent for Lafayette in the United States, and later for the Lafayette family.
Skinner wrote The Dog and the Sportsman (1845), and a number of monographs on agricultural subjects. He also contributed agricultural articles to leading newspapers such as the Albion (New York), and the Philadelphia Courier, and edited a number of agricultural works.
Skinner's death, at the height of his powers, was occasioned by an accidental fall in the post office at Baltimore.