206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



culated that at the present rate of consumption, there is a stock 

 on hand to last 100,000,000 years. 



My task is done; but I feel as though I had barely touched upon 

 a few of its points. There is much to be learned yet, both by the 

 practical and scientific man. The inventor will here find room for 

 his genius, and the chemist a comparatively unexplored field in the 

 changes that take place in fermenting matter and animal excre- 

 tions. The physician will receive reward for his research and 

 reasonings, and the microscopist ample opportunity to test his 

 wonder-revealing lenses. By it all the animal will be benefited in 

 its health, and the farmer in his pocket, besides the satisfaction of 

 having well-developed stock, beautiful to the eye, sleek and glossy 

 to the feel, carrying themselves with vigor and elasticity, his cows 

 yielding a healthy, life-sustaining milk, and his oxen and horses 

 performing their assigned tasks with spirit and animation. There 

 should also be a deeper feeling than this, — that we have not ill- 

 treated a dumb and dependent animal. 



Mr. Goodwin. I call the doctor's attention to the injurious 

 effects of a superabundance of shade trees around a dwelling, 

 whether that has come within the sphere of his observation ? 



Dr. BowEN. Yes, sir, I have thought of it, but 1 could not 

 speak of everything in this paper. It is a very injurious 

 thing to have shade trees too near a dwelling. They have a 

 tendency to chill and dampen the air. I think the aim should 

 be to induce a dry atmosphere, and not one too damp or too 

 moist. 



Prof. Brewer. Don't you think that ill ventilation is more 

 excusable in fattening animals than it is in keeping animals 

 for work. That is, if you are fattening animals, wont they 

 stand, for the time being, rather poorer air than working ani- 

 mals ? We are going to kill them off, any way, in a little 

 while. They will not burn out quite as much fat in keeping 

 themselves warm. I know that very often the surroundings 

 of fattening animals are very unpleasant, and the supply of 

 air is not very great. I believe that one of the most eminent 

 breeders in the country considers that animals with very 

 small lungs fatten best. What do you think of that ? 



