r 



32 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS I 



guise its bad qualities and render it salable, it is necessary to give it color and 

 consistence. That it is often adulterated is proved by analysis, and the confes 

 sions of those who from principle have relinquished the practice. Starch, sugar, 

 ? flour, plaster of Paris, chalk, eggs, annatto, etc. are used for this purpose ; such 

 \ substances being preferred, of course, which have the strongest affinity for the 

 ) fluid, and will not readily precipitate.* These adulterations enable the vender 

 { to give the milk a proper consistence and a beautiful white color, so as to dilute 

 the wretched slush with about an equal quantity of water, without, detection.&quot; 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF CATTLE 



Fattening Cattle for Market. 



The stall-feeding or soiling of cattle is considered to possess several advantages 

 over feeding in the fields. In field-feeding, the animals waste a certain quantity 

 of pasture by treading and lying upon it, and by dropping their dung the grass 

 which grows on the dung spots being ever after rejected ; the animals also spend 

 time in seeking for the herbage which suits their fancy, and much is allowed to 

 go to seed untouched. In stall-feeding, the whole time is devoted to eating and 

 ruminating, while no food is lost, and the animals are brought to a higher condi 

 tion. Another important advantage of soiling is that it uses up the waste straw 

 of a farm as litter, and thus furnishes a plentiful supply of that indispensable ar 

 ticle, manure, for the fields. Some feeders tie up their cattle to the stall while 

 preparing for market ; but others permit them to roam about on a thick bed of 

 straw in an enclosure in the farm-yard, with a shed to retire to for shelter the 

 feeding in this case being from racks. Unless for a period during the final pro 

 cess of fattening, the straw-yard method is reckoned the best for keeping the cat 

 tle in a healthy state, and consequently for producing beef of the finest kind. 

 The practice of feeding cattle for a considerable length of time, in darkened 

 stalls, on oil-cake, carrots, mangel-wurzel, &c. produces, as is well known, a 

 great deposition of fat, and swells the animals to a monstrous size. The beef, 

 however, of such over-fed cattle is never fine. The fat with which it is loaded 

 easily escapes in cooking, and leaves lean of an inferior quality. The best sign 

 of .good meat is its being marbled, or the fat and lean well mixed, when brought 

 to the table ; and this is not to be expected from beef fed in an unnatural con 

 dition. 



The age at which cattle are fattened depends upon the manner in which they 

 have been reared upon the properties of the breed in regard to a propensity to 

 fatten earlier or later in life and on the circumstances of their being employed 

 in breeding, in labor, for the dairy, or reared solely for the butcher. In the latter 

 case, the most improved breeds are fit for the shambles when about three years 

 old, and very few of any large breed are kept more than a year longer. As to 

 Cows and working Oxen, the age of fattening must necessarily be more indefin 

 ite ; in most instances, the latter are put up to feed after working three years, or 

 in the seventh or eighth year of their age. 



Rules for Selecting Cattle. 



In selecting cattle for feeding, their qualities may be in some measure known 

 by examining the hide, horns, &c. &quot; It is well known that the grazier and the 

 butcher judge of the aptitude that any animal has to fatten from the touch of 

 the skin. When the hide feels soft and Silky, it strongly indicates a tendency in 

 the animal to take on meat ; and it is evident that a fine and soft skin must be 

 more pliable, and more easily stretched out to receive any extraordinary quantity 

 of flesh, than a thick or tough one. At the same time thick hides are of grea t 

 importance in various manufactures. Indeed, they are necessary in cold coun 

 tries, where cattle are much exposed to the inclemency of the seasons ; and, in \ 

 the best breeds of Highland cattle, the skin is thick in proportion to their size, 

 without being so tough as to be prejudicial to their capacity of fattening. It ap 

 pears, from Columella s description of the best kind of Ox, that the advantage of 



* The presence of flour, starch, etc. in milk may be detected by adding to the miik a solution of iodine in 

 aVcol.ol or by adding a little nitric acid to the milk, and then a few drops of a solution of iodine of potassium. 

 Either of these tests communicates a blue color to milk or cream which contains arrow-root, rice-powder, 

 flour, or any other substance of which starch is the constituent. [Domestic Chemist, p. 148. 



