LECTURE III. 



BEEF CATTLE. 



From the earliest times the flesh of cattle has been used 

 as food for man, but the general use of beef for food, as we 

 now know it, has developed within the last two hundred 

 years. 



The composition of beef, given in the preceding lecture, 

 shows that it is an extremely concentrated food. It is also 

 easily digested more so than pork or mutton, or most of the 

 vegetable foods and of the food nutrients it contains, prac- 

 tically all are available, so far as the protein constituents 

 are concerned. Of the fat, about 90% of the total amount 

 present is available. These two factors the high availa- 

 bility of nutrients present, and the ready digestibility of beef 

 are factors that have been potent in extending its use as 

 an article of food. 



In addition to this, beef is rich and tempting to the eye 

 and to the palate, and has a more stimulating influence upon 

 the consumer, than any amount of vegetable foods. Horses 

 that are trained for extreme trials of speed are fed almost 

 wholly on oats, for it has been found that these not only 

 furnish the nutriment in a concentrated form (thereby re- 

 lieving the horse of the burden of a distended abdominal 

 cavity), but that they also possess a stimulating principle, 

 which renders the horse better capable of extreme efforts. 

 In the same way. beef is a desirable food for man, and for 

 the same reasons. 



The influence of a liberal supply of meat, particularly 

 beef, has been clearly shown in the disposition and charac- 

 teristics of beef-eating peoples. Secretary James Wilson 

 well says "The beef eaters rule the world." for Great Britain 

 and North America, whose people are beef eaters to a degree 



