^60 STATE BOAED OF AGKICULTUEE. 



paying prices. Therefore we conclude that however well skilled a man may be 

 in the art of breeding, it all goes for nauglit unless he also understands and 

 practices the science of feeding, which includes some knowledge at least of 

 animal physiology combined with a knowledge of tlie properties of different 

 kinds of food, and which, and in what proportion to feed to best accomplish the 

 ■object in view. For instance, the main object in feeding young animals is to 

 make them grow and not to fatten them. Consequently we should feed them 

 ■on such food as will best promote their growth, and there is no other kind of 

 food so well adapted to accomplish it, for the first half year, or year of its life 

 as milk. Great care should be exercised in changing the food of all young- 

 animals especially; let it be done very gradually, as their digestive organs are 

 Aveak and very sensitive, and are easily disordered, and the growth of the 

 young animal receives a check that it will not soon recover. Over feeding the 

 young is almost if not quite as hurtful as starving, and once let it become 

 stunted from either cause, and you have failed on that animal ; not ruined it 

 perhaps, but you have failed of making of it what yon might and ought to have 

 done. Some of you may like to know whether I speak from experience ; to 

 gratify your curiosity I will say that I have been there. Having now glanced 

 in a cursory manner at some of the more prominent facts of our subject, a few 

 thoughts on the third and last division of it and I am done. 



The Pros2)ective lieivard. 



It seems to me there never has been a time in the history of our nation when 

 -the outlook was so bright and full of promise as the present for the breeder 

 and producer of extra articles of consumption. It is only a very few years 

 ■since we commenced to export the products of our dairy to England ; and you 

 all remember the cry that came back, that our butter and cheese did not fill the 

 bill, — that it did not come up to the standard, and it w'as a failure. They for- 

 •got that these were the products of the Yankees, and that as soon as we got 

 •acquainted with their peculiar tastes we could tickle their jDalates to a nicety. 

 And so we have. I can't give you the figures (I wish I could) ; but our trade 

 with her in these articles is simply immense, considering the short time since 

 :it began. 



Our success in this line is beyond question. It is no Yankee guess, that beef 

 and mutton, as well as bacon, in the near future are as sure to follow in the 

 tracks of our daily products, just as sure as daylight follows darkness. 



Less than two years ago Ave commenced to send dressed beef to Europe. It 

 "vras a trial experiment, the cost of fitting \v^ refrigerator compartments on 

 board the steamers being so great that it Avas simply an act of prudence to test 

 the thing thoroughly. 



The result is that most of the steamers on scA'eral of tlie lines noAv take out 

 -a regular supply of beef, averaging nearly one thousand carcasses per Aveek 

 from New York alone, and about five hundred from Philadelphia. The ship- 

 ments from New York during the past year Avere about 22,500 heads, the 

 amount being small at the beginning of the year and closing with 1,350 the 

 past Aveek closing Avith January 3d. 



Besides the beef sent abroad, a fcAV dressed sheep haA'e been included, and it 

 is probable a regular trade in muttoii Avill yet be established. AVho says the 

 Avorld does not move? The consumption of sheep in New York city the past 

 year foots up 1,328,820, Avhich I judge to be about one-third of the Avhole num- 

 ber consumed in the United States. Now what does all this indicate but that 



