THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



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With 'regard to the tlej^ree, or completeness in 

 which the same food in different states is digested, 

 the evidence seems to inchne pretty well all the 

 same way, viz., that the more finely the food is di- 

 vided, the greater is the portion of nutritive matter 

 ahstracted from it hy the stomach. The process of 

 cookimj, by rendering the food more readily divisi- 

 ble, probably operates also in a similar direction. 

 The operation of mastication — the grinding action 

 in the gizzard of a bird — the bruising of corn for 

 our live stock — the gruel and other thin farinaceous 

 food given to invalids — all seem to lead us to the 

 same conclusion. One of the common results of 

 overfeediny shows, however, that by no method 

 of division can loss in this way be avoided, for 

 in such cases portions of undigested food are 

 voided by [the subject, often in considerable quan- 

 tities. 



This voidance of food by cattle did not escape 

 the attention of Sprengel. He long since remarked, 

 in a valuable paper on animal manures, so well 

 translated from the German by James Hudson, the 

 secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society {Jour. 

 Royal Agricultural Society, vol. i., ]). 459.), * that 

 it is sometimes maintained that the excrements of 

 cattle fed on scalded fodder are of superior quality 

 to those of stock fed in the ordinary way. This, 

 however, adds the German chemist, is scarcely pos- 

 sible. They must, on the contrary, with equal quan- 

 tity and quality of food, be inferior ; for by the pro- 

 cess of scalding, the materials are so prepared for 

 the digestive organs as more easily to lend their 

 best portions to them. For this reason we give 

 cows a less quantity of scalded fodder than of that 

 which has not been so prepared. The excre- 

 ments of oxen fed on scalded food come sooner 

 into effective operation, since the woody fibre, and 

 the hardened vegetable portions of the food, are 

 softened by the process of scalding, and conse- 

 quently when in the state of excrement are decom- 

 posed more rapidly. On account of this quicker 

 effect, the excrement of cattle fed on scalded food is 

 sometimes supposed to be the best, although it is 

 not really so. 



The solid excrements of cattle has been ex- 

 amined by several chemists — in all cases 

 vegetable fibre, and other organic matters were 

 found to be present. Einhof found in 1,000 parts 

 of the solid excrements of cattle fed on spurry. 



Water 717 pints 



Green mucous matter 93 „ 



Vegetable fibre 156 „ 



Similar remarks have been made in chemical 

 examinations of human fseces. These, said Way 



* Why was the translator's name not appended to this 

 Essay ? Why is he not encouraged to make other va- 

 luabk'eflTorts in this way ? 



(Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc. vol. xv.,p. 141) consist partly 

 of the uncliyested food which has been taken in ex- 

 cess over the necessities of the stomach and sys- 

 tem, and partly of those undir/estible portions, such 

 as woody fibre, which being part and parcel of the 

 food, are necessarily taken into the stomach with 

 it, but which pass unchanged out of the body in 

 the faeces. In an analysis by Berzelius, the cele- 

 brated German chemist, seven per cent, of vegeta- 

 ble and animal remains were found. 



These researches, then, pretty uniformly tend to 

 support the economy of reducing the food of stock 

 to a fine state of division — a practice, however, 

 which can hardly be carried out to any material 

 extent without the aid of steam. We have seen, 

 too, that it is necessary, amongst other things, to be 

 careful in such cases, lest we reduce too much in 

 this way the necessary bulk of the food. With 

 these precautions it would certainly seem that the 

 ordinary amount of food may, in many instances, 

 be still profitably reduced, by its soluble and nu- 

 tritious portions being more completely extracted. 



A USEFUL TRIAL WITH THREE DIFFER- 

 ENT KINDS OF SHEEP TO FIND THE 

 MOST PROFITABLE BREED. 



Sir, — The conviction that the Mark-lane Express is throw- 

 ing more light upon agriculture, direct and indirect, than any 

 other journal upon the globe, not only in theory, but practice 

 combined, causes me to send you this letter. 



If an old manusciipt serves me right, a grazier of great 

 emineuce tried the following experiment in the year 1819. 

 He purchased, in April 20, great Lincolnshire ewes with a lamb 

 each, 20 pure bred Leicester ewes with a lamb each, aod 20 

 Sussex Downs with a lamb each. The 60 ewes with their 

 lambs were put upon 40 acres of famous old grass land, with 

 35 first-class Hereford oxen. The ewes were taken from their 

 lambs and off the land on the 20th September, and their 

 lambs were all wintered and summered in the said close 

 without any other sheep until the 5th November. The 60 

 lambs, all alive, had been on the land two summers and 

 one winter without cake, corn, or turnips, nay, or anything 

 else but what the said land produced— grass. The Liucolos 

 averaged, when slaughtered, 301bs. per quarter, and cut 121b9. 

 of wool each ; the Leicesters averaged 261bs. per quarter, and 

 produced 71bs. of wool each ; the Sussex Downs averaged 231b8. 

 per quarter, and sheared 5 Jibs, of wool each. Wool, at £2 per 

 tod, would bring 17«. l^d.each fleece of the Lincoln ; the wool 

 of the Leicesters, lOa. each fleece ; and the wool of the Down, 

 78. lOjd. each fleece. The Lincolns produced 1201b8. of 

 mutton each ; the Leicesters produced lOllbs. of mutton ; and 

 the Downs 921b3. of mutton each. The 20 Lincolus, when 

 added together, made 2,4001bB. of mutton, the 20 Leicesters 

 I roduced 2,0801bs. of mutton, and the Downs made l,8401bs. 

 c' mutton. 



Since this trial took place, the Southdowns have wonderfully 

 miproved in frame, weight of mutton, &c. Many of the pure- 

 bred Leicester flocks have degenerated in constitution ; whilst 

 the Lincolns were never better— Peterborough ram fair as a 

 proof. Samukl Arnsby. 



Mill Field, Peterborough, June 3rd, 1858. 



