300 ox THE ECOXOMICAL USE OF TURNIPS 



snuff* a lang time afore he would fatten upon't." Much the 

 same might be said of many crops of watery innutritions 

 turnips, on which stock are attempted to be fed without a 

 sufficient supplement of dry and concentrated food. 



But it may be asked, What harm can arise from giving live- 

 stock even a superabundant supply of such a harmless liquid as 

 water ? We reply that, to compel an animal nolens volens to take 

 in this way far more water than it either desires or needs, not 

 only does no good, but that it does positive harm. And here let 

 it be borne in mind that the moisture in turnips in their natural 

 state is at a very low temperature, and that a large and hearty 

 meal of cold roots by themselves must reduce the temperature 

 of the body of the animal partaking of them, and even 

 produce a positive chill upon it. At the time when it was 

 customar}^ to give cattle an unlimited supply of them, it was no 

 uncommon sight on a cold winter day to see bulloks standing 

 literally shivering after they had gorged themselves. In the 

 case of sheep the chilling influence of the roots is greatly 

 aggravated by the fact that the sun-oundings of the poor dumb 

 brutes may be extremely unfavourable, the temperature of the 

 atmosphere being often low, and the wind, it may be, piercingly 

 cold, wdiile the skin of the sheep may be drenched with moisture, 

 and the land on which it has to spend its time is wet, miry, and 

 altogether comfortless. That such a mode of feeding, especially 

 in the case of breeding animals, is prejudicial to health, we shall 

 by and bye quote abundant testimony to prove; but, apart 

 altooether from a consideration of the ojeneral health of the 

 animal, what, we would ask, is the effect of pouring such a 

 superabundant supply of cold water into the stomach of the poor 

 brute ? Why, just to counteract the beneficial influence of a 

 considerable proportion of the nourishing and heat-producing 

 elements which are contained in the solid parts of the turnips. 

 A large proportion of the food which an animal eats is entirely 

 used up in keeping its body warm, and in maintaining its vital 

 movements. The food which is not used for this purpose either 

 passes out of the body in its excreta, or is retained therein, being 

 converted into permanent increase. Now a large proportion of 

 the solid matter in the quantity of turnips consumed by an 

 animal subsisting entirely upon them, is used up in producing 

 heat in tbe body. The exact proportion consumed in this 

 necessary function is dependent on a variety of circumstances, 

 one of the chief of which is the temperature of the animal's 

 body. Heat is equivalent to food, and hence if a bullock or a 

 sheep be chilled either by its outward circumstances being cold, 

 or by its internal warmth being greatly and suddenly reduced 

 by a hearty meal of cold watery roots, part of the food partaken 

 of is consumed in bringing the beast back to its normal tempera- 



