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is a preservative of health, the stables where they are housed should be 

 kept clean and the animal free from vermin. The curry-comb or card 

 should be used frequently, in order to keep the skin in a healthful state. 

 When we consider that two-fifths of all the food and drink Avhich is 

 taken into the stomach, passes off through the skin by insensible perspi- 

 ration ; and that very many of the diseases with which the human as 

 ■well as the brute animal is afflicted, are caused by obstructions or dis- 

 .eases of the skin, too much care cannot be taken to maintain in health- 

 ful action the functions of this important organ. The best way to 

 eflfect this is by friction, produced by the card or curry-comb, applied as 

 often as once each day. Cattle that are intended to be stall-fed through 

 the winter, should be kept on the best of pasture the farm affords 

 through the previous summer and autumn, so that they may go into the 

 stalls with as much flesh on them as it is possible to put on with grass. 

 The practice of putting very poor cattle into the stalls for the purpose 

 of fattening them on grain, is, to say the least, very poor economy. In. 

 regard to preparing the feed for fattening animals, various opinions pre- 

 vail, and various systems are practised by feeders. They all concur, I 

 believe, in the advantage of having the grain ground or chopped ; and 

 afterwards, some practice the method of fermenting and souring the 

 meal before it is fed. This method is liable to the following objection : 

 all farinaceous substances, when exposed to heat and moisture, undergo 

 three kinds of fermentation, the saccharine, the vinous, and the acetous. 

 In the first stage, sugar is produced ; in the second, alcohol ; and in the 

 third, vinegar. And Avhile, in the first stage, the feed is very nutritious, 

 in the second it is less so ; while in the third, it is nearly worthless as a 

 nutriment. The objection to this system of preparing food is, the diffi- 

 culty of keeping it in the first, or even the second stage, especially if 

 the weather, or the room where the souring tub is set, be warm ; in that 

 case, it passes very rapidly into the third stage. The consequence is, 

 that one-half the feed is given in its sour, or worthless state ; hence, 

 giving food prepared by this process, is a great waste of the raw mate- 

 rial. Others recommend the plan of boiling or cooking the meal before 

 it is fed. I know of but one advantage this course possesses, and that 

 is, that it is easier to digest, and in warm Aveather it is a very good way 

 of preparing feed ; but in cold weather, I would prefer to give the meal 

 in its raw state, from the fact that it is harder to digest ; and the more 

 the stomach has to labor to digest its food (if it be able to overcome 



