CATTLE AND SHEEP. 45 



paring to say to the reasoner "Before we can consent to 

 found our practice on your argument, you must prove to us 

 that burning the extra food in the body is not the cheapest 

 way of restoring the heat destroyed. Charge yourself with 

 the very considerable outlay requisite for warming the food 

 with the fuel with the labour and waste : take into 

 account that, when you have heated your food, it will cool 

 very rapidly while it is before the beasts ; that it will cool 

 very rapidly while it is being divided into portions ; that 

 any which is left must be heated over again." We were 

 just going to say, " When you have taken all this into the 

 reckoning, tell us the result," when we stumbled on the 

 following passage in an account of the Cattle Lodge at 

 Howick : " The opinion of the feeder is, that the animals 

 did not thrive so well on steamed straw as when it was 

 given naturally. We believe that, with the exception of 

 linseed if, according to Mr. Warnes' experiment, that is 

 an exception it will not be found that the cooking food 

 for cattle, even if it be beneficial, will repay the extra 

 cost," &c. Remembering that Mr. W T arnes has been the 

 great advocate for warm and cooked food, we turned back 

 to his experiment, and we find as follows : Eight Scots 

 shut up in October : four fed " on the cold linseed muci- 

 lage ;" "the other four have had boiled linseed." "His 

 own opinion, and that of many other farmers who have 

 seen the animals, is, that the four fed on raw linseed are 

 superior to their competitors." Mr. Warnes says, " But 

 admitting the fattening properties of both systems to be 

 equal, the cold must possess the greater advantages 1st, 

 because firing is dispensed with," &c. And again, " So 

 satisfied has Mr. Warnes become of the superiority of the 

 cold linseed, that he means at once to adopt it in the feed- 

 ing of the rest of his cattle." It is somewhat singular 

 that we have made the whole of these extracts from the 

 same publication in which we had previously found the 

 Liebigian argument, which we have abstracted, put for- 

 ward as conclusive. Year by year prizes have been offered 



