Investigation Of Livestock Husbandry Development In China In Modern Times

The traditional scientific culture of animal husbandry with its own peculiar style formulated in the long history of China' s animal husbandry has made considerable contribution to the traditional animal husbandry of our country. It is only in the modern times that it was left behind the rest of the world due to the rapid development of the western experimental science. As a result of the opening of China' s shut door to the outside world through the western imperial warship attacks, the looting of our country' s animal products was accompanied by the spin-off of the introduction of the advanced animal husbandry science and technology, which pushed our country' s animal husbandry to the modern times. Hence, the modern times (1840-1949) are both a key transition period from the traditional animal husbandry to the modern one and an integration development period of the traditional and modern animal husbandry. An investigation into the animal husbandry in this period and drawing lessons from it are beneficial to the understanding of our country' s animal husbandry in that transition period and the external and internal causes for hindering development of our animal husbandry in the modern times, to the enriching of the historical approaches to China' s economy, science and technology, and rural society, and it also throws lights on the ongoing modernization drive of agriculture in China.China is one of the cradles for animal husbandry in the world. Restricted by the natural conditions, China' s animal husbandry has been demarcated into the south and north zones, which has persisted from the primitive times to the modern times. The south zone is favorable to crop planting, with two or three harvests a year due to short growing seasons and irrigation and warm climate. In this zone, animal husbandry remained as a sideline position, with house feeding of oxen, donkeys, mules as power animals and pigs, chickens and ducks as meat animals. The northwest zone is called animal husbandry region, where the cold weather and the yearlong draught limited the cultivation but the herbivore animal' s horses, sheep and cattle were raised, Such an animal-plantdemarcation is induced by long-term effects of the natural, economical and social development and it forms the basis of the modern animal husbandry.The ensuing years after 1840 witnessed China' s suffering from repeated wars, foreign invasion and looting. But at the same time, as China sped up its open-door program and introduced the western animal science and technology and fine species and strains of animals and poultry, great progress has been made in our animal husbandry production. Take horse breeding for example. Folk horse breeding was developed as the restrictions on horse breeding were relaxed in the Qing government. Statistics show that China became one of the countries with the largest number of horses (8 million and more in 1935). The folk horse breeding did not negatively affect the donkey and mule breeding; nevertheless, it was popularized as transportation was developed. China was number one donkey-mule raising country in the world, 5 million donkeys and 2 million mules in 1912 being upgraded to 12 million donkeys and 5 million mules in 1935. Other animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, and ducks were also improved with the population growth and industrial development.As for the foreign trade in animal products, the export value of animal products in 1880 amounted to 700, 000 Guan-Liang, occupying 1% of the total export value of our country. But in 1913 the amount rose to 40 million Guan-Liang, making up 10% of the total. In 1934, the anir.al product export took up 20% of the total export in value and ranked at the top of the export list, which contributed a lot to the construction and modernization of our country in the modern times.In the modern times, a period of developing China' s animal husbandry and a key transition period for China' s animal husbandry science and technology. On the one hand, the traditional animal husbandry developme...