30 * BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cost, and feeds them to his stock in accordance with the 

 known laws of digestion and assimilation. 



In the demand for food the whole universe stands upon an 

 equality, vegetable and animal life alike requiring it. The 

 plant, however, differs from the animal in its power of 

 retaining all the increase derived from its food, all received 

 from both the soil and the atmosphere remaining perma- 

 nently in its structure a component part of the whole, which 

 is ever increasing in size (excepting in some of the higher 

 forms which shed their leaves, blossoms, and seeds, when 

 they have performed their functions). But in the animal 

 economy a constant change is taking place, — decay and 

 death in the midst of life. Where the most life and action 

 exist, there will be found the greatest amount of decay. The 

 animal soon attains its size ; and the further supply of food is 

 only necessary to repair the waste that is ever going on in 

 the nervous tissues, and for the creation of heat. The waste 

 of the system, however, is not equal in all. The deer, whose 

 muscles move quickly, and whose nervous power is of the 

 keenest order, has a far greater amount of waste than the slow 

 and unenergetic bear, who passes a portion of the year (at 

 least in northern latitudes) in hybernation ; which act itself 

 is an illustration of the rapidity of nutrition and waste ; for 

 in this condition there is no muscular motion further than a 

 slow respiration and pulsation of the heart, and a feeble 

 peristaltic action of the intestines, the accumulated fat of the 

 warm season being fully sufficient for the maintenance of 

 life during the most protracted winter. 



The asre of the animal has also much to do with the 

 amount of food required ; the young and growing requir- 

 ing a far greater amount, in proportion to their size, than 

 those who have reached maturity. Different periods of adult 

 life also require var^nng amounts of food. As age advances, 

 less is eaten than during the more active periods of life. 



We all know that the size of plants can be augmented bj-- 

 increasing the food-supply: instances of such are familiar to 

 all. The same rule holds good in the case of animals. The 

 more food that can be digested, the larger and more thrifty 

 the animal will be. But there is a fact beyond this even. 

 The old saying, that every part eaten strengthens a like part 

 does not hold good exactly: but it is a well-known fact 



