THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



299 



Australian agricultural body, that its sheep-breeding opera- 

 tions had proved by no means satisfactory. He then pro- 

 ceeded to speak more particularly of the breeding of sheep. 

 Adverting to what he had said about the early lambing of 

 the Dorset sheep, he remarked that lambs were dropped 

 according to the uses and requirements of the several 

 counties, as refards climate, food, and after-management to 

 be pursued for realizing in the markets, and at what age 

 they were to be sold. The mountain races, of course, did 

 not drop their lambs until the cold season was gone by, so 

 that thi! lambs could eat the early grasses as they lirst 

 sprang up. He had not yet referred to the Cotswold sheep, 

 which was a magnificent animal [Pointing to a portrait, he 

 said, That is a draught of a Cotswold ram, belonging to Mr. 

 Lane, which took the first prize at the Lewes Meeting]. 

 Alter giving some local details of this breed, he stated that 

 the lambing of this sheep occuri-ed about March ; so also 

 did that of the Leicester sheep ; but he might say again 

 that the period generallj- depends on situation, climate, an,j 



' the supply of food. One important fact was, that at the 

 present time sheep were, in some of the best districts, sen 

 to market at the early age of twelve, fifteen, or eighteen 

 months. Formerly, scarcely any sheep were sent under 

 three or four years of age ; and therefore the public had to 

 wait for their mutton (laughter). The truth was that in 

 many gi-azing counties it was formerly, and even now, 

 difficult to provide food for fattening them in the winter 

 season : hence, the fai'mer fed his sheep on the richest pas- 

 tures he could give them during the summer months, in 

 order that he might be able to send them early to market 

 in the autiunn. Another very important matter in relation 

 to the culture of sheep was warmth. He had before re- 

 ferred to this, in effect, in speaking of climate ; but the 

 subject of warmth was so important as to require special 

 mention. On this point, he would read an extract from a 

 lecture which was delivered by Dr. Lyon Playfair before 

 the members of the Royal Agricultural Society, in the year 

 1842, the subject of the lecture being, "The application 



t of physiology to the rearing and breeding of cattle." 

 He must confess that, as a farmer and breeder, he listened to 

 that lecture at the time, as no doubt many others did, with a 

 predisposition to set down everything as mere theory; but 

 subsequent experience had convinced him that what the doctor 

 said was true. Dr. Playfair set out by saying, " It would be 

 presumptuous in any scientific man, however exalted his rank 

 iu science, to endeavour to instruct an assemblage such as this, 

 or to recommend illustrations in the practice of an art which he 

 has learned in the closet and not in the field." He must say that 

 that was his feeling at the moment. " But it may be per- 

 mitted," added the doctor, " even to the most humble culti- 

 vator of science, to examine the practice which you yourselves 

 have perfected, and to point out the laws of nature upon which 

 that practice depends." Dr. Playfair afterwards v/ent on to 

 tell them, in regard to warmth, that it was up to a certain point 

 an equivalent for food. He said, " The average temperature of 

 the bodies of our cattle is about 100 degrees, or more than 

 40 degrees higher than the ordinary temperature of this 

 climate. Hence there must be some provision in the animal 

 body to sustain the heat which is absolutely necessary for the 

 performance of the organic functions. The air, being so much 

 colder than the body, must constantly withdraw from it heat, 

 and tend to lower its temperature. Whence, then, comes the 

 fuel for the production of the heat ?" What the doctor said 

 was, in other words, that the heat required by the animal's 

 body being 100 degrees, when the temperature was below that 

 the exchanges were against the SQioal. If the bodily heat was 



only 60, it must be made up to 100 by fuel. What fuel? 

 Why food. Surely, then, breeders ought, for the sake of 

 economy, to keep up the animal heat. The doctor quoted 

 Liebig in confirmation of his views. " Were we," said Liebig, 

 " to go naked like certain savage tribes, or if in hunting and 

 fishing we were exposed to the same degree of cold as the 

 Samoyedes, we should be able with ease to consume ten pounds 

 of flesh, and perhaps a dozen of tallow candles into the bar- 

 gain, as warmly clad travellers have related with astonishment 

 of these people. We should then also be able to take 

 the same quantity of brandy or train-oil without bad 

 effects, because the carbon and hydrogen of these sub- 

 stances would only suffice to keep up the equilibrium between 

 the temperature of the external air and that of our bodies." 

 Dr. Playfair himself afterwards said : " The only use of 

 clothes, in the abstract, is to economize food. They assist in 

 retaining the heat of the body, and render less food or fuel 

 necessary for this purpose." To this he (the lecturer) would 

 add another illustration. If a man who had led an active life, 

 and had been accustomed to exposure to cold, retired from 

 business, and confined himself almost entirely to a warm room, 

 he would get fat, simply because there would be nothing to 

 lower the animal heat. After the publication of Dr. Play fair's 

 lecture, in 1842, a prize was offered by the Royal Agricultural 

 Society for the best essay on the management of sheep. He 

 was himself fortunate enough to be the successful competitor; 

 and at the end of the essay, which was published in the eighth 

 volume of the Society's Transactions, would be found the re- 

 sults of twenty experiments which he tried in animal-feeding, 

 which confirmed Dr. Playfair's views in reference to warmth. 

 He would not trouble them by entering into any of the details 

 of the experiments, but he would observe that the experiments 

 all hinged upon the relative value of the different kinds of food 

 which were given to animals. For instance, there was a com- 

 parison between the common white turnip and the swede 

 turnip. They all knew that the common white turnip con- 

 tained a very large quantity of water. In September, while 

 the sun was still powerful, he found that the sheep would 

 thrive very well on a given quantity of that vegetable ; but 

 when the sun's rays had become more oblique, and the 

 temperature of the atmosphere was considerably lower, 

 so that as the animal inhaled the surrounding air the 

 exchanges were against it, he found that the animals 

 fed on the white turnip made no progress; the fact being 

 that such food did nothing but just suffice to keep up the ani- 

 mal heat. At this period, however, that was about Christmas, 

 came in the swede, which contained a smaller proportion of 

 water. Less of this was required to keep up the bodily tem- 

 perature, and with care on the part of the farmer, the animal 

 went on pretty well till the spring, when there was no longer 

 any diflSculty. He might further observe, that he put eight 

 sheep in summer into two pens, four in each pen, and besides 

 giving them all clover, he supplied one pen with a pint of 

 beans per day, and the other with a pint of peas. It might be 

 supposed that there would be little difference between the two 

 as the result of this variation of diet ; whereas in fact, the 

 sheep supplied with the peas did very well ; while those that 

 had the beans, like horses that were overfed with the same 

 kind of food, soon exhibited symptoms of inflammation, the 

 beans being too hot for the body at that period of the year. 

 At the conclusion of his essay he said, " Thus, after many 

 anxious reflections upon the 'principle' which 'science' 

 has dictated, "practice" has shown it to be one of great mag- 

 nitude, and to develop the mysteries of past ages by pointing 

 out those elements of the vegetable creation best adapted to 

 Nature's laws under the varied temperature of the seasons." 



