Vlll PliEFACE. 



their daily treatment, and the keeping of them in ordin- 

 ary health, he should be able to rely on himself. 



To have some acquaintance \vith the physiology of 

 nutrition, and of the intimate connection between the 

 condition of his stock and the several kinds of food 

 thereby consumed, cannot but materially assist him in 

 his daily tasks, and save him from a multitude of 

 errors. 



The work now offered to him is designed to bring 

 such a knowledge within his reach. 



It is a concise survey of the actions of nutrition and 

 of the chemistry of food with reference to the animals 

 subservient to agriculture, to which is added a still 

 briefer notice of some other functions concerned in 

 organic life. 



It consists of Three Parts : in the First Part, a de- 

 tailed account of the organs of nutrition and their mode 

 of action in the horse, the ox, the sheep, the pig, the 

 dog, and in the chief kinds of poultry, is exhibited', 

 amply sufficient to enable the agriculturist to judge for 

 himself in many important questions that arise daily in 

 the farm. 



The Second Part contains a somewhat minute detail 

 of the chemistry of food in the animals referred to in 

 the First Part, and of the particular nutritive value, as 

 far as that is as yet ascertained, of each article, in order 

 to put into the hands of farmers the means of becoming 

 their own advisers in respect to the choice of food for 

 the several kinds of animals when new circumstances 

 present themselves. 



