GZ STATE IJOARD OF AGIUCULTURE. 



into the rectum u few times, will f^oncrally bring relief; but if neglected, or 

 if the trouI)le has not boon discovered for some time a tablespoou-f nil of cas- 

 tor oil should be givcMi to a very young foal, in company with the injections, 

 and a laiger dose of oil may be necessary in older animals. Constipation in 

 the yound animal should be carefully looked for, in cases in which it has beea 

 found necessary to draw the milk from the dam, for a length of time before 

 delivery. Diarrhoea is sometimes met with in young animals at this time, but 

 this is a trouble reciuiring skilled and experienced treatment; but in all cases 

 the food of the dam should be changed, as the irritation of the intestines is 

 often caused by the milk. 



Young animals dropped the preceding spring, or summer, should be pro- 

 vided with warm quarters, properly ventilated, and witli all the good food they 

 will eat. Young animals never should be put to the drudgery of working up 

 coarse or damaged food ; their digestive organs are yet weak, and should be 

 favored with plenty of well cured hay, roots, if possible, and liberal rations of 

 grain. The food for growing animals should be rich in albuminoids and phos- 

 phates, as these substances will furnish the material necessary to the growth 

 of muscels and bones. If the digression may be permitted, I will remark that 

 it has been found, that crops manured with concentrated manures, or phos- 

 phates, contain a larger amount of bone-forming matters than tliose which have 

 not received artificial manures; and the farmer need not look to the crops 

 alone for the return he expects from the superphosphate he has sown. 



The production of meat is a branch of agriculture that should receive a 

 just share of every farmer's attention. Winter fattening of animals is oftea 

 a source of profit to those who practice it. In feeding animals at this season 

 for the butcher, the farmer should use his store of food economically and try 

 to keep his animals healthy. The cheaper the food used in feeding such ani- 

 mals, the greater must be the farmers' profits, if he gets the required amount 

 of fat in a reasonably short time; but in all cases he will have to depend prin- 

 cipally upon concentrated foods; and it is combining the concentrated foods, 

 with the coarse, in just proportions, that he will make his economy. Compar- 

 ative Physiology teaches that most of the domestic animals require a certain 

 bulk of food, in order that digestion may be properly carried oij. We find that 

 from two to three pounds per day is an average increase in weight in the case 

 of the ox, when being fed for the batcher; and it would not be difficult to put 

 the substances which represent this increase, and those that would compensate 

 the necessary daily waste of the animal, in a very small compass; but when 

 we come to examine the stomach of the ox, we find that our ration for the 

 day would occupy but a small portion of the space we find there ; and if we 

 should persist in feeding such a ration it would not be long before we found 

 that our animal had but "a poor show" for a three pounds' gain. This fact 

 of the animal requiring considerable bulk in his food, may be turned to good 

 account by the farmer, in feeding catttle or sheep, for example, he can take 

 a quantity of corn stalks or straw to furnish the bulk and combine with them 

 other foods of small bulk, but rich in fat producing substances, as corn, or 

 oil meal or even oil itself, as is done by European feeders. 



In this country the farmer will have to govern himself in feeding cattle or 

 sheep by the market he is feeding for; if it is for an American market he will 

 need food rich in albuminoids, as very fat beef or mutton is in but little 

 demand. But if it happens that his animals will make shipping stock, he need 

 have no fear of making them foo fat. In the later stages of the fattening 

 process the farmer may find it difficult to make his animals eat as much as he 



