CHEMISTRY OF THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 173 



ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS FOR 

 THE PRODUCTION OF MEAT AND MANURE. 



By Mr. J. B. Lawes. 



Read before the Royal Dublin Society.* 



The breeding and feeding of stock must always constitute an 

 important branch of the agricultural practice of this Island. With 

 a climate rarely so hot and dry in summer, or so cold in winter, as 

 to materially arrest vegetation, Ireland may not less truly than 

 poetically be styled the Emerald Isle. A succession of seasons 

 more than usually unfavorable for grain crops has greatly reduced 

 the profits, and even the capital, of many of our farmers. It is 

 natural, therefore, that there should be, at the present time, more 

 attention directed to the production of meat, and less to the 

 growth of corn ; more especially as with the declining price of 

 grain that of meat has considerably advanced, and has probably 

 not yet reached its highest point. 



Although the application of science to agriculture is not gener- 

 ally regarded with much favor by practical farmers, there are still 

 very many who feel how advantageous it would be to know more 

 of the rationale of their operations than they do at present. The 

 scientific principles involved even in old-established practices are 

 frequently but little understood ; whilst farming is every year be- 

 coming less and less of a mere routine business than it was 

 formerly ; new foods, new manures, improved descriptions of stock 

 and seed, and new mechanical appliances are constantly being in- 

 troduced, requiring more knowledge and discrimination in their 

 selection and use. 



The particular branch of agriculture upon which I have the 

 honor to address you this evening is that of the production of meat 

 and manure. We all know that when fattening animals are sup- 

 plied with a sufficient amount of proper food they increase in 

 weight, a portion of the food being fixed or stored up in the body ; 

 that other portions are rejected by the animal in the liquid and 

 solid form, and serve. as manure; and that others are expended or 

 lost in the processes of respiration and cutaneous exhalation. 



* From the Journal of the Royal Dublin Society. 



