# Animal Husbandry

Husbandry had a greater economic importance than agriculture in certain areas during the Middle Ages, and even in later centuries. This was also apparent in the second half of the last century, since in 1870 in Hungary there was one head of cattle to every three men, one horse to every seven men, and one sheep to every man. On the other hand, by 1931 they reckoned only one head of cattle to every fifth Hungarian citizen, one horse to every tenth, and one sheep to every sixth. These ratios also show that through the centuries the economy of the country shifted increasingly towards agriculture.

Husbandry played an outstanding role not only in nutrition (meat, milk), but also in providing many kinds of basic materials for clothing (wool, leather). But as we go back in time it is also increasingly one of the most important factors of agriculture itself, because the animal stock provided manure and gave the draught power indispensable to cultivating the soil and gathering the harvest.

The Magyars already knew the words ló (horse), and eb (dog), in the Finno-Ugric period, but they really became livestock raisers only after meeting the Bulgaro-Turks. Even if we do not count all the Magyar words connected with keeping the numerous kinds of livestock, an indication of the differentiation of cattle alone by sex and age has been preserved in the Hungarian language by many pre-Conquest Turkish words: üsző (heifer); tinó (young bullock); borjú (calf); tulok (steer); bika {245.} (bull); ökör (ox). We also borrowed from this source the words kecske (goat), and disznó (pig). It is quite sure that, although they knew and practised farming, for the conquering Magyars animal husbandry was still the more important part of the economy.

The Magyars’ knowledge of animal husbandry was further increased in the Carpathian Basin. They learned important elements of hay cultivation from various Slavic peoples, which clearly proves that the ancestors of the Hungarians already provided, on a regular basis, for the wintering of stock. The devastation of the Tartars and the settling of the Cumanians in the 13th century reinforced the nomadic characteristics of animal keeping on the central steppes of the Great Plain.

Two more important influences affected Hungarian animal husbandry. One was the influence of the Walachian herdsmen, who, originating in various parts of present-day Transylvania and Havasalföld, got to the northern part of the Carpathian Basin, as far as the Moravian territories, and especially influenced the Palots shepherds. Such connections could also be demonstrated in the animal keeping of the eastern half of the Great Plain, coming from the Rumanian shepherds called bács also by Transylvanian Hungarians who frequented the Great Plain region of the Tiszántúl. Western breeds of cattle came especially from the 18th century on, mostly to Transdanubia, whose traces can be found even to this day.

During the centuries, various forms of Hungarian animal husbandry developed. These categories actually shade into each other; they never appeared in pure form, and transitional forms may be found in many variations.

It is characteristic of extensive husbandry that the stock spends the entire year out of doors. In winter the herd is driven into the protection of various covered or half-covered structures, erected in sheltered places of marshes, and forests. Here a certain amount of fodder is laid in stock for the time when a heavy snowfall makes grazing impossible. In the Great Plain the peasant farmsteads were the centres of such winter animal keeping during the initial period of their development. Equivalents can be found now and then in the mountain region, though they are different in their historical development. Stock kept under this system also brought their young into the world outdoors. The large quantity of stock was marketed for slaughter or was brought up and trained to be draught animals.

In semi-extensive husbandry the stock stay on the pasture from spring until late autumn, usually until the snow falls. Afterwards they are kept in stables, in covered pens, or in other structures, but still grazed in the winter if the weather permitted. This form of husbandry was general not only in the Great Plain but also appeared in Székelyland, where the horses grazed outdoors from early spring until the first snowfall, when they were driven into highland sheds for lodging. Here they were not tied but received fodder regularly and were let outside when the weather was suitable.

Nomadic husbandry combines many characteristics of the two previous forms and keeps the stock primarily on pasture over the largest part of the year. One of its features is that the herdsmen and the flock return to {246.} a given settlement but spend a significant part of the year either wandering or at a single, well-defined place. Thus movement is possible between winter and summer lodgings. In the winter, the flock is driven to a place where suitable pasture or cheap fodder is available. Thus they masted pigs in oak forests in the winter, often driving the herd several hundred kilometres for this purpose. Wandering in pursuit of pasture occurred in the Carpathian Basin until the most recent times.

Although traces of stable keeping can be shown from the Middle Ages on, yet it became general and predominant only after a considerable part of the pastures had been broken in, and after the pastures of the peasants had been separated from those of the nobility, subsequent to the freeing of the serfs. This meant a major decrease in the pasture available to peasants, who were thus forced to stable their animals and keep them on fodder. From spring until late autumn the stock were driven out each day to the pasture on the edge of the village, but fodder was also given in the evening at the stable. At night, the adolescent children took the horses and oxen that had participated in farmwork out to the fallow fields and pasture, so that they would not eat the very scarce fodder.