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Animal Breeding

The animal breeding, a basic economical activity, complementary to the one of plant cultivation, was characterized in the traditional Transylvania and the whole Romania through the numeric balanced report established between different species, excepting the specialized areas that were reduced as surface. The natural conditions in the medieval and modern Transylvania favoured especially the development of this activity, which ensures not only a large part of the family subsistence but also it was the main source of cash of the peasant household preponderant autarchic.

On the alpine grazing lands the sheep breeding was preponderant, and in the hill and plain areas, rich in grazing lands and hayfields but also forests of oak and beech the big cattle, pigs, goats and horses breeding was developed. The significant quantum of the medieval taxes in products, consisting of sheep, oxen and pigs documented the economical special share of this occupation.

In the first exhibition unit,, the horse breeding is illustrated by objects dated in the second half of the 19th century: a decorated wooden saddle (1), bells characteristic to draught horses (2), an iron horse lock (3) useful for unsupervised grazing of the horses. The two property signs (4) were used for marking both the horses and the big horned cattle, whose surrounding is illustrated by the inter-war pieces necessary to their guard and manipulation (5 whips, 6 bells for keeping the unity of the herd, 7 buzari for separation of the calves from their dams, 8 hood-bag (straita-gluga) used by the watchmen simultaneously for food and for protection against the rain) and by specific recipients necessary to milk processing: sustar (9), and donita (10) for milking.

The second exhibition unit contains pieces of the individual inventory of the shepherds (pacurari) and the objects used by them every day at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century: individual wooden cups (cauce) (11) for drinking water, made by themselves, leather shepherd bag (straita) for food (12) and water-proof shepherd hat (clop uns) (13), greased with a mixture of fir-tree resin and sheep butter (the two of them worn both for practical reasons and as a professional sign), recipients for salt (sararite) made of birch-tree bark (14) or of horn (15), butter patterns (16) and green ewe cheese patterns (17), shepherd individual spoons (18). From the daily sheepfold inventory there are exhibited a one-piece trough (copaie) (19) in which the shepherds ate, in common, maize porridge with regular cheese or with soft cottage cheese (containing whey; soft cheese extracted from the boiled sheep whey), the arc for cutting maize porridge (20), the one-piece cup (cupa) (21) in which they ate jintita (sediments left on the bottom of the pail after the boiling of the whey mixed up with soft cottage cheese, ceaonul (22) for cooking and the amnare (flint steels) (23) for lighting the fire.

In the Transylvanian pre-Carpathian areas with inhabitants who turned into account the large alpine grazing lands, sheep breeding was always practiced, and some tens of Romanian villages in the south of Transylvania became specialized even in this field even in the Middle Age, practicing the breeding flocks moving system, directed to the valorisation of the milk products on the market, of the wool and sheep meat. The sheep milk processing became in Transylvania a Romanian specialty, the techniques specific to the field being taken over by all the ethnic groups in the Carpathian area, which has hold largely till today original terminology.

The platform of the central exhibition unit (III) contains items from the end of the 19th century, which illustrate the specific Romanian technique of sheep milk processing: buckets for milking (24) with the carâmb for milk measuring and with the raboj for 'book-keeping' (25), cheagornisa for keeping the curd liquid (26), budaca for curdling the milk (27) with linen strainer (28) and jintalau for beating the curdled milk (29), crinta and vesca (sieve frame) for pressing the green ewe cheese (30), spoons for soft cottage cheese (31), pail fro boiling the whey (32) with speteaza for mixing the whey (33), pot hanger (cujba) for hanging the pail (34).

The platform is flanked by decorated clubs, made by the shepherds (before and after 1900) and used by them mainly for manipulation and guard of the flock, for climbing of the slopes, passing over the streams, as weapon and resting. The model without hook, Romanian characteristic, have two forms: simple (35) and with bludgeon (36). The club with metal hook (37), seldom known, was introduced in Transylvania from Central Europe, in the same time with the sheep of merino breed.

The forth exhibition unit contains objects dated before and after 1900, which illustrate techniques of getting some sheep milk products, techniques of distribution and processing of the green ewe cheese, techniques of longer keeping of the sheep cheese and sour milk: keg (fedeles) (38) for getting and keeping the sour milk, untarnita (recipient for getting the butter) (39), trough (covata) with ravar for crushing the green ewe cheese and transforming it in regular cheese (40), balance (cumpana) for weighing the green ewe cheese distributed to the associated sheep owners, at the sheepfold (41), burduf (a primitive leather bag made out of the hide of oxen, sheep etc.) for keeping the cheese during winter (42), barbânta also for keeping the cheese (43), wooden and bark recipients for keeping daily the cheese (44).