THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



105 



be no iucrease of weight, supposing the food consumed, 

 digestion, assimilation, and the other conditions as 

 before. This, however, is never true; for, with bad 

 health, all the functions become less or more deranged, 

 so that there is a waste both of body and food. In the 

 case of draught animals and milch cows there will, under 

 bad health, be less work done, and milk yielded, than 

 in the case of good health ; every individual example 

 presenting its own peculiar result, as its amount of pro- 

 fit or loss, according to the degree of health enjoyed. 



Without going farther into the details of this division 

 of the subject, the conclusion obviously forces itself 

 upon our notice, that more attention must be paid to 

 the general health of stock and to the medicinal proper- 

 ties of food than is now being done, so as to effect its 

 economy, and return the farmer more profit. Jt will be 

 understood that we are not finding fault with what has 

 been said or done in reference either to experiments 

 made in the laboratory or at the homestead, our object 

 being progress in medical chemistry and animal me- 

 chanics in their relation to the economy of food. In 

 every branch of science rapid progress is now being 

 made. A truth so conspicuously exemplified cannot be 

 denied; but, while this is acknowledged, it is equally 

 manifest that practice is advancing more rapidly, and is 

 at the present time a-head in the application of medical 

 chemistry to the economy of food .'or cattle ; and this 

 is not exactly as it should be, for the farmer 

 and agricultural chemist should both pull together in this 

 important work, so as to throw the necessary amount of 

 light around them, and thus prevent the chariot-wheel from 

 running against much opposition now experienced in the 

 cattle-food trade. 



The principles which we thus contend for, and have so 

 long advocated iu the colurans of the Mark Lane Express, 

 are acknowledged established in medical science, not only 

 in reference to man, but, if possible, also more so as ap- 

 plied to t!ie brute creation, so that the only topic which can 

 give rise to a diversity of opinion is, the mode of carrying 

 out those principles successfully into practice. When 

 animals are left to themselves, they are led by instinct to 

 search for certain plants possessing both alimentary and 

 antiseptic properties, the one for nourishing the body, and 

 the other for counteracting the daily waste upon it ; so that 

 Nature herself leads the way in the march of improve- 

 ment. Other plants are not only food and medicine, as 

 above, but the alimentary substances which they possess are 

 in a state more ready for digestion and assimilation than are 

 the alimentary substances of the ordinary produce of the 

 farm, while tfiey supply alimentary substances of which 

 that produce is deficient, and which, consequently, must 

 generate disease. 



We then come to the practical question, Can Art supply 

 those articles at a price which will enable the farmer to use 

 them profitably ? And to this. Experience, already corro- 

 borating the soundness of Nature's rule, replies in the 

 affirmative — if they are used successfully. Like all other 

 simple experimental questions, profit depends upon judicious 

 management ; and if condiments are of the proper kind, 



and successfully used, the improvement of health, and con- 

 sequent reduction of waste upon the body, will leave a 

 balance, as increase of weight in the case of fattening 

 animals and animals being reared, and increase of milk in the 

 case of milch-cows, amplj' sufficient to cover a much higher 

 price than, we presume, is generally credited as possible. 



In saying so, it must not be assumed that we are advocat- 

 ing what may be termed extravagantly high-priced condi- 

 ments, but the contrary, for we are not so short-sighted in 

 this matter as not to perceive that the longer the profit of 

 the manufacturer the sooner the market will have an abund- 

 ant and overflowing supply — the legitimate way, according 

 to commercial science, of lowering price. What we wish 

 chiefly to impress upon the minds of our readers is the fact, 

 a well established one too, in all similar cases, that the profit 

 of the farmer depends as much upon his own conduct as 

 upon the quality of the condiment and its price, so that in 

 every experiment, if the balance is against the experimen- 

 talist, the first thing he has to determine is the soundness 

 of his own judgment in the selection of the article, and in 

 its proper use in the individual case at issue. To conclude 

 that the condiment is too dear because he has failed to 

 make it pay, is absurd ; for if he uses a condiment to effect 

 any of the above conditions regarding quality of food, 

 digestion, assimilation, and health, the balance is so greatly 

 in favour of good management as to do far more than cover 

 the highest priced article now in the market, supposing such 

 article tuitable to the pathology of the animal that gets it. 

 Questions of this kind are always most successfully illus- 

 trated by example ; so that if two farmers have two animals 

 of one breed, similar in every respect, subject to a daily waste 

 equal to the whole amount of assimilation, so that no in- 

 crease of weight is gained — then, if both use the same 

 kind of condiment, and an equal quantity of it dail}', and 

 if the oue, by good management, succeeds in reducing this 

 waste upon his animal one pound or two pounds per day, 

 and the other fails to make any reduction through some- 

 thing wrong in the management, has the latter any right to 

 conclude that he himself is right, that the condiment is 

 an imposition, and that his neighbour is being imposed 

 upon .' The duty of the latter is unquestionably to improve 

 his practice, until he succeeds in reducing the daily waste 

 upon his own animal, so as to realize a profit equal to his 

 neighbour's. Because one farmer cannot make a profit, 

 that is no reason why the whole should relinquish their 

 profession, placing the plough upon the shelf. 



The substance of the whole matter may thus be summed 

 up in one word — health. What is it ? A great deal is 

 said about laying on fat. So far well ; but ought not some- 

 thing to be said also about pulling down the fabric? When 

 the water bursts througli the mill-dam, the miller, without 

 much theorizing on the subject, bastes to fill up the gap and 

 prevent the waste of what he has been careful to gather. His 

 conduct is as sound in theory as it is effective and exemplary 

 in practice. If Manchester were to burn her web at the 

 one end as fast as she wove it at the other, she v/ould be 

 wasting something more than the raw material. And this 

 is not more than true in the whole than it is iu part, for bad 

 health is just any degree of waste upon the body beyond 

 that of the minimum standard of health. 



London, Jan. 18. W. Burness. 



FEEDING STATISTICS. 



Sir, — Agriculturisls have been called upon to believe 

 that great discoveries have recently beeu made iu the 

 science and practice of the feeding of animals. To use the 

 words of one of the most notorious of the new lights on this 

 subject : — " The manufacture of an alimentary and condi- 

 mental compound for the seasoning of the food of live stock, 

 is one of the most important advances in applied science 

 which the pen of the agriculturist has to record." 



Being largely interested in the feeding of stock for profit, 

 and having devoted a great deal of time and money in in- 



quiries to obtain fixed data relating to the feeding of ani- 

 mals, the conclusion to which I have arrived is, that no 

 proof has yet been given that these new foods have any 

 practical value whatever in an economical point of view. 

 Nor does a knowledge of the composition of these foods add 

 anything to what was previously known on the subject 

 of feeding. 



To enable those who are practically engaged in feeding 

 stock to judge for themselves what profit they are likely to 

 derive from the use of food costing from £40 to £50 per ton, 



