200 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



the relative merits of cattle, sheep and pigs, as producers of meat 

 and profit. Again, Mr. Lawes, if I followed him rightly, sug- 

 gested that the ratio between the nitrogenized and nou-nitro- 

 geiiized constituents in cereals may be regarded as a fair criterion 

 of what it should be in cattle food. I would have rather thought 

 the ratio in grass, which is the natural food of cattle and sheep, 

 may be rather better for those animals ; and would like the opinion 

 of iMr. Lawes on this point. If my memory serves me right, the 

 nitrogenized is to the non-nitrogenizcd constituents in grain as 1 

 to 6 ; and in grass it is less. Adverting to Dr. Cameron's views 

 oa "jerked" beef, he thought his reasoning fallacious. We are 

 told this beef contains too little carbonaceous and too much (?) 

 nitrogenized matter. Now, it is notorious that the diet of the 

 Irish laborer is deficient in nitrogenized matter. His potatoes 

 contain too little nitrogenized in proportion to their carbonaceous 

 matter ; and I see no good reason why a cheap and concentrated 

 nitrogenized substance like South American beef could not be 

 united with his potatoes. He had learned from a South American 

 gentleman who had been recently in Ireland that this beef forms 

 the staple article in the diet of large numbers of our fellow-men ; 

 and through him I have got information on its cooking, &c., which 

 enables me to say that the mode of using it is not well understood 

 in this country. Furthermore, I beg to remind Dr. Cameron that 

 he appears to forget that the requirements of a working animal 

 are different from those of a fattening animal. We keep the latter 

 as quiet, and cause as little waste of their tissues, as possible. In 

 working animals — the horse, man, &c. — the tissues are necessarily 

 wasted, and to supply this waste, we must supply food more 

 largely than for fattening — a food like jerked beef, containing a 

 large quantity of nitrogenized matter. In conclusion, Mr. Bald- 

 win begged to add his testimony to the valuable services rendered 

 to the cause of British agriculture by Mr. Lawes. Whoever reads 

 tlie history of agriculture for the last twenty' years will find promi- 

 nently on its pages the name of J. B. Lawes. There is not, per- 

 haps, from any one pen in the literature of any science during 

 that period as great or valuable a number of papers as Mr. Lawes 

 has contributed to the literature of British agriculture in the pages 

 of the journal of that great institution, the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England. 



