HO 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



The revival of the old question, " Rich venison-flavoured 

 meat." is rather aa interesting one. Considering the pro- 

 minent place it occupied about the commencemeut of the 

 present century, it is rather surprising that it should have 

 lain so long asleep. In Lawrence's New Farmer's Calendar 

 special attention is drawn to the controversy that existed on 

 the breaking up of our downs and sheep walks, and the con- 

 flequent loss that would be sustained under the improved 

 system of in-door feeding on artificial food ; " Epicurean rea- 

 Boners, " as he termed them, prophesying what we now 

 generally experience, " the loss of the fine venison flavour of 

 the Down mutton." To obviate so great a loss, Lawrence 

 proposes the cultivation of those plants of whic h cattle were 

 thus deprived, while the writers of the " Complete Body of 

 Agriculture," even propose the cultivation of anise; and 

 Sollysell, Gibson, and others, who wrote long prior to this, 

 advocated the same doctrine. To avoid repetition, our remarks 

 ou flesh-forming food, aa beans and peas, are reserved for the 

 seventh or last question, 



The fourth question is not very easily reconciled with any 

 common sense view of feeding slock — the food being half-cake 

 half-peas, as in the above table ; hay, straw, turnips, carrots, 

 or some other food being generally given at the same time, 

 either along with the mixture of corn and cake, or else before 

 or after it. Digestion does not commence in the first stomach 

 of a ruminant animal, and if mixed with other food during 

 rumination, then the proportion of half-cake half-peas ceases 

 to exist ; but if we can suppose any farmer so foolish as to 

 feed his stock exclusively first upon peas, then upon cake, and 

 next upon half-and-half, then we have some difliculty in giving 

 credit to the veracity of the results in the table, more espe- 

 cially as to cake ; for, although a small quantity might prove 

 alimentary, we are afraid that to the generality of animals a 

 large quantity would prove cathartic ; at least, it belongs to 

 that class of articles whose action is such : so that any 

 other food added to half the quantity of cake would be bene- 

 ficial. Again, from the large quantity of extractive matter 

 which beans and peas possess, it is difficult, in the present 

 state of knowledge, to say what effects it may produce when 

 mixed with the fat-forming elements of the cake, or what 

 anli-septic action it may exercise when taken into the sys- 

 tem, as a reduction of 1 lb. of daily waste would be equiva- 

 lent to 1 lb. increase of live weight. These are all practical 

 questions that must be taken into consideration by farmers 

 in estimating the comparative value of feeding materials; 

 and they are practical questions, too, which are at present 

 engaging a very lively interest in the minds of all who are 

 called upon professionally to investigate this department of 

 science. 



The last three questions (5, 0, and 7) may be disposed 

 of together. There is a wide difference between different 



animals in the consumption of nitrogenous food ; a draught 

 animal requiring more than an idle one — a growing animal 

 tliau one that has arrived at maturity — a nervously ill- 

 tempered animal than a peacefully disposed one. Exercise, 

 we have seen, is essential to the growth and healthy deve- 

 lopment of muscle ; so that it may not inaptly be said that 

 the manufacture of muscle is more a matter of skilful man- 

 agement than of chemistry. If an animal is confined, iiilh- 

 oul exercise and light, on large quantities of oilcake, and 

 other food having a tendency to produce obesity, the nitro- 

 genous matter of the food will not only go to the dungliillj 

 but the live muscle itself will become atrophied, so that no 

 small portion of it also goes to the land, instead of to the 

 butcher. The increase of weight in such cases is not lean 

 meat and rich venison-flavoured juices, but bad fat and a 

 sort of foul v^ater. The difference between the two is as 

 easily known at our bankers' as at our dinner-tables. The 

 Moliammedaus in their harems fatten their women, some 

 on " fine flour and honey," others on rice and a sort of 

 currie-powder, in the short space of three weeks " plump 

 and round." So Pereira, in his work on " Food and Diet," 

 inform us; but he at the same time calls the increase of 

 weight thus formed " disease " — " obesily." Analogous to 

 this is the increase of weight in cattle, in too many cases, 

 under the forcing system. But in every case where the 

 practical man of experience and sldll handles Lis ox or 

 sheep, he has no ditficulty in arriving at a satisfactory con- 

 clusion as to why barley-meal or Mr. Frere's compound 

 allowance returns a greater increase of live weight than 

 more nitrogenous food, and why the latter makes richer 

 manure. 



Again, in the olden time, growing muscle had more exer- 

 cise, along with those plants that give to meat its rich 

 flavour; while, as Sir Humphrey Davy observes, all the 

 grasses of our best fattening pastures so greedily preferred 

 by cattle, oxen, and sheep, " have a Buh-acid taste." In other' 

 words, they contain those proximate principles required by 

 the digestive functions for the manufacture of flesh-forming 

 matter into flesh, and without which the work cannot be 

 done. Hence the rationale of Arthur Young's success in 

 the feeding of his pigs on steeped beans, &c. ; the lactic- 

 acid thus formed aiding digestion. Hence, also, the large 

 quantities of nitrogenous and other qualities of food re- 

 quired to produce rich milk, that is now used in some of our 

 large London dairies ; and also according to Horsfall's sys- 

 tem. A milch cow has got a way for disposing of rich 

 nitrogenous and oleaginous food, such as corn and cake, if 

 along with these she gets the means of doing so ; but this 

 would require an article by itself, and therefore we may re- 

 turn to it with a little more time and space; X. 



TRIAL OF REAPING MACHINES. 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF 

 ENGLAND. 



Sept. 4.— The following is a copy of the award of 

 the judges of reaping machines at the late trial at 

 Canterbury, which was deferred until after the meeting 

 in July. 



, ^ ^ " September 4, 1860. 



' We, the undersigned, award the prize No. 26, given by 

 tlie Local Committee of the Koyal Agricultural Society's Show 

 at Canterbury, to Article 792, exhibited by Robert Cuthbert 



& Co,, Bedale, Yorkshire, as the best reaper. At the same 

 time we consider the reaper exhibited by Burgess & Key 

 worthy of high commendation. (Signed) 



" P. S. PUNNETT, " ThOS. RaMMELL, 



" Tiios. Abbott, " H. P. Austin." 



" Fbed. Murton, 



YORKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The adjourned trial of reaping machines was held at Dar- 



rington, on September 10, At the ihov six weeks ago, the 



