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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ordinary prominency in the list, and that one is 

 heath ; and, we may add, that our reason for making 

 it an exception is, because we believe many fallacious 

 notions are associated with its use as food for cattle, 

 both in the highlands and lowlands. 



"Erica vulgaris" (common heath), says Dr. Dung- 

 lison, in his Medical Dictionary (an American work) " has 

 been regarded as diuretic and diaphoretic" — two proper- 

 ties of inestimable value when associated with those of 

 the ordinary food of our cattle. When in bloom, the 

 period at which heath has generally been considered to 

 possess the greatest value, it yields to bees a larger 

 amount of fine honey than perhaps any other plant, and 

 also by distillation a strong alcoholic spirit, atone time 

 extensively used by our forefathers. In Sweden it is 

 harvested like hay, and extensively used during winter 

 in the feeding of stock, more especially sheep. About 

 the commencement of the present century its use as a 

 forage plant for sheep in winter was strongly advocated 

 by almost every agricultural writer of any authority in 

 this country ; and the more the medicinal properties of 

 the food of our Highland cattle and sheep are under- 

 stood, and the influence they exercise upon the quality 

 of their beef and mutton, the more will it grow in 

 favour as an article for mixing with the ordinary feeding 

 materials now given to live stock during the summer 

 season as well as during winter, especially where animals 

 are housed. It is one of those plants, too, that can 

 easily be harvested and ground into meal, so as to be- 

 come a marketable commodity of easy conveyance to 

 supply the requirements and demand of every province 

 in the kingdom. It is possible therefore, and more 

 than probable, that this now rather despised plant may, 

 amidst the progressive rivalry of things, become one of 

 the most popular of our feeding stuffs. 



Turning, on the other hand, to the food and manage- 

 ment that have produced our improved Shorthorns, 

 Herefords, Devons, Leicesters, Cotswolds, Southdowns, 

 &c., and the inferior quality of beef and mutton into 

 which it is manufactured, it is manifest that neither the 

 one nor the other — neither the raw materials nor tie 

 manufactured article will bear investigation from a 

 chemical and medicinal point of view, the inferior 

 quality of the beef and mutton being tangible evidence 

 in proof of the inferior chemical and medicinal pro- 

 perties of our oil-cakes, turnips, &c., as feeding stuffs, 

 ■when coupled with a system of management diametri- 

 cally opposed to the proper development of healthy 

 organism, or, in the more current phraseology of the 

 shambles, to the proper mixture of fat and lean. Oil- 

 cake and turnips have, since ever they were given to 

 cattle, been known to injure the flavour of the butcher- 

 mea* and dairy produce made from them. 



It \ill no doubt sound very unfavourable, in the ears 

 of some, to say a single|6entence against the use of two 

 such popular feeding stuffs as turnips and oilcake. But 

 when we begin to investigate chemical and medicinal 

 properties, and their influence upon the quality of the 

 food of our cattle, and the quality of the meat made 

 from them for our tables, the plain truth must be told. 

 Tn other words, the noxious flavouring properties of 



linseed and of the turnip must be dealt with as matters 

 of fact. Now, Dr. Thomson in his London Dispensa- 

 tory, Morton in his Veterinary Pharmacy, and all 

 writers of any authority, acknowledge the fact that lin- 

 seed oil contains those noxious principles to which we 

 refer. And with regard to turnips, the pungent smell 

 of the cattle's breadth while feeding, and their carcases 

 when slaughtered with the belly full of them, must be 

 accepted as tangible evidence, by all who have turned 

 their attention practically to the subject, that they 

 contain properties incompatible with finely-flavoured 

 meat. 



In reply to this, it may no doubt be said that the 

 noxious principles in linseed cake and in the turnips may 

 be neutralized before such feeding stuffs are given to 

 cattle ; but although such may be accepted in extenua- 

 tion of the case of turnips when they are properly 

 cooked, yet when we come to the practical question, the 

 actual manner in which turnips are given, the examples 

 are few and far between where such an extenuation can 

 be accepted as matter of fact ; the contrary being true, 

 turnips being given in the most objectionable manner 

 that can well be conceived. In point of fact, so long as 

 our chops and steaks — cream and butter savour of the 

 noxious flavouring matter of oilcake and turnips, the 

 practice of giving such articles is open to objection. 



But without going into the chemical and medicinal 

 properties of an objectionable character, the very fact 

 that the present food of our improved live stock pro- 

 duces an inferior quality of meat to that of the Highland 

 ox in his native glen, brings us to the obvious conclusion 

 that the food and treatment of the former are not those 

 by which we can hope successfully to improve the latter. 

 In other words, to maintain the fine quality of Highland 

 beef and mutton, while we advance early maturity, it 

 would be at variance with the established laws of phy- 

 sical science to have recourse to that system of feeding 

 and general management that have produced the contrary 

 of what we wish to maintain. 



Although we are here speaking of the quality of 

 Highland beef, it must be understood that we are dis- 

 cussing the proposition of wintering a Kyloe that has to 

 be returned to his native hills on the first approach of 

 summer. It may be necessary to remind the reader of 

 this, lest any one accustomed to fatten off Highland 

 bullocks for the shambles should hastily conclude that 

 his experience stood opposed to our deductions. To 

 do even-handed justice to the Kyloe we must commence 

 the process of fattening when he is sucking'his dam, 

 in the same manner we do to obtain the early maturity 

 and heavy weights of our boasted improved breeds. 



At present the Kyloe is starved and stinted at the very 

 commencement of his grazing career, or during the first 

 autumn and winter, and every winter season afterwards, 

 until he finds his way southwards to be fattened off for 

 the shambles. Under such a system, we question very 

 much if there is another breed that could endure what 

 he does, and return an equally heavy weight of carcase, 

 even at his somewhat advanced age when he arrives at 

 the slaughter-house. The facts of the case speak for 

 themselves, and they may safely be left to do so, against 



