YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 75 



constantly. Whenever the time arrives that the vital force is not 

 enough to supply the waste, decay, and then death, come upon 

 us. A degree of heat that would destroy animal tissue, when 

 separated from the animal, is necessary in the body to sustain 

 life itself. This heat is engendered by using the carbo-hydrates 

 and fats of food ; but these confcdn no nitrogen, and hence 

 they will not strengthen our bodies, although they do warm 

 them. When in a state of rest, the muscular and nervous tis 

 sues are but little wasted, but the fat is consumed in heating. 

 When, however, an ox or man labors, or a man thinks, the 

 muscular and nervous substance is consumed. A good warm 

 stable, or other means of giving external heat to our animals, 

 is a much cheaper way to maintain the requisite animal heat 

 than to overfeed with corn and oats. Oil is a necessary ingre 

 dient in food, and the addition of fatty matter, when not nat 

 urally present in sufficient quantity in it, helps digestion, and 

 thus promotes the growth of the animal. A German farmer 

 proved this by feeding some stock on food that contained but 

 little oily matter, and comparing their daily weight with the 

 greater weight they afterward attained when fed upon a more 

 fatty diet. For man's food, cooking is a great assistant to di 

 gestion, for it commences chemical changes which would have 

 to be brought about in the stomach, and would thus abstract 

 from his store of vital force a considerable amount of what 

 he might have used in muscular exertion. The young growing 

 animal needs an easily digestible food, food which contains 

 a large amount of bone material. Milk is by analysis found to 

 be of just this character, and hence we see the admirable pro 

 vision of nature in this respect. 



The afternoon lecture was by Mr. LUTHER H. TUCKER, of 

 The Country Gentleman, who, having devoted the whole of 

 last summer to an investigation of British and French farming, 

 was deemed the suitable person for giving us a lecture upon 

 this interesting topic. Mr. Tucker is another of our rising 



