Jacob Biggle
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When Jacob Biggle first published The Biggle Swine Book in 1898, hog husbandry was undergoing major changes. New feeding methods had come into vogue, new breeds of hogs had been developed, and significant progress had been made in curbing swine-borne epidemics. Even the public perception of pigs as filthy creatures wallowing up to their knees in mud had brightened, and pigs were accorded a modicum of respect. But with the onset of railroad development...
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When Jacob Biggle first published his book on the management of poultry, there were more than 300 million chickens and 30 million other domesticated fowl in the United States. Today, the trend continues with thousands if not millions of chickens and other fowl being raised in suburban and urban backyards across America. Biggle's aim was to "help farmers and villagers conduct the poultry business with pleasure and profit." To that end, this handy little...
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"The first thing to do about starting an orchard is to plan for it," Jacob Biggle, the author of this handy little book, advises. "Put on your thinking-cap, study into the matter, and do not jump in the dark. A slow start is much better than a poor start. Harriet says that an orchard set in the right place, at the right time and of the right varieties, is worth just eleven times more than a hit-or-miss orchard. Where she secured the data for such...
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When The Biggle Garden Book was first published in 1908, most people were in the habit of raising their own food and flowers. Jacob Biggle felt that a gardener's success had to do with willpower and passion rather than acreage. "The man, woman or youngster who really wants a garden, will somehow manage to have a good one regardless of soil conditions, bad weather, measles in the family, or whether the area of ground at hand is a square acre or a square...
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"The only just and true way for an honorable and manly man is to grow them, and let everybody about the place have all he can eat. For the berry comes from the garden to the table in tempting and presentable shape, fit to grace the table of a king," writes Jacob Biggle in The Biggle Berry Book, which was first published in 1894. If you hate plunking down what seems like a king's ransom every time you buy a quart of berries at the local farmer's market,...
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"As long as I can remember, even as a boy, there were bees kept on our farm," wrote Jacob Biggle in his preface to The Biggle Bee Book. "If for no other reason than to insure the proper fertilization of fruit and other blossoms, every farmer, fruit grower, or gardener should keep a few bees upon his grounds." Biggle's fifty colonies of bees, though requiring just a small part of his time, paid Biggle a larger return than any other animal on his farm....
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"People ought to try to make their horses happy," wrote Jacob Biggle's wife Harriet in The Biggle Horse Book in 1894. "A happy, cheerful horse will do more work and live longer, and thus be more profitable to its owner, than one whose temper is kept constantly ruffled, whose disposition is soured by ill-usage, and whose peace of mind is often disturbed by the crack of the whip, the hoarse voice of the driver, the strain of overwork, the discomfort...