228 AGEICULTUEE. 



and builds up the gluten into " flesh without change, just 

 as a house is built up with stones from a quarry." All 

 animals desire food containing carbon in cold weather, and 

 reject it in warm, " as we light our fires at Michaelmas, 

 and leave our grates empty in May." So far there is a 

 delightful concord among all the authorities, and by these 

 rules we may proceed to build up lean meat with great 

 confidence. But when we come to fat, Liebig, Playfair, 

 and Boussingault have each a theory of his own. We shall 

 imitate Mr. Pusey's prudent reserve in expressing no 

 opinion on their differences. We certainly have been 

 startled by the proposition that mangold-wurzel contains 

 very little fat or milk, which substances are contained more 

 abundantly in straw ; and, as our own cattle have always 

 fed faster and milked better on mangold-wurzel than on 

 any other vegetable food, we cordially agree in Bous- 

 singault's candid admission, that "practice has got the start 

 of theory ; and I own, with perfect humility, that I think 

 its conclusions are in general greatly to be preferred." 



Passing from chemical to mechanical science, Mr. Pusey 

 lingers, somewhat incongruously, with meteorology by the 

 way, and declares his belief that the climate of England is 

 the best in the world for farming. The only important 

 deductions, however, which he draws from a considerable 

 array of meteorological facts, and from an isothermal map 

 of the world, are, that though draining pipes of one inch 

 diameter may be sufficient in a country where the annual 

 fall of rain is only 25 inches, they may be quite inadequate 

 in another where the fall is 50 inches ; and that manure 

 may be much less injured by rain in an open fold-yard in 

 the former county than in the latter ; in both which con- 

 clusions we have no doubt that our candid readers will 

 cordially concur. 



Mr. Pusey puts forth his full strength when he impresses 

 upon farmers the immense advantages which mechanics have 

 conferred upon agriculture, and he accuses them, temperately 

 but firmly, of having been slow to avail themselves of 



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