DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 273 



ox, from labor and flesh ; in the cow, from the milk, the 

 flesh and her young. In the sheep, it may be returned in its 

 fleece, its carcass or its progeny ; and in the swine only by 

 its progeny and flesh. The manure we expect from all; and 

 if this be not secured and judiciously used, few animals 

 about the farm will be found to yield a satisfactory profit for 

 their food and attention ; though it is evident, it should form 

 but a small part of the return looked for. Animals are only 

 profitable to the farmer when they yield a daily inroine, as 

 in its milk or labor, or annually, by its young or fleece, 

 unless it be in a course of regular improvement, either in its 

 ordinary growth or preparation for the butcher. The animal 

 must consume a certain amount of food merely to keep up 

 its stationary condition, and to supply the materials for waste, 

 respiration, perspiration and the evacuations. These must 

 first be provided for in all cases before the farmer can expect 

 any thing for the food. Frequent observation has shown, 

 that an ox will consume about two per cent, of his weight 

 of hay per day, to maintain his condition. If put to mode- 

 rate labor, an increase of this quantity, to three per cent., 

 will enable him to perform his work and still maintain his 

 flesh. If to be fattened, he requires about 4 per cent, of his 

 weight daily, in nutritious food. A cow to remain stationary 

 and give no milk eats two per cent, of her weight daily, and 

 if in milk, she will consume three per cent. If these state- 

 ments are correct, which it is certain they are in principle, 

 though they may not be entirely in degree, it will require 

 the same food to keep three yoke of cattle in idleness, as 

 two at work, and the food of every two that are idle, will 

 nearly support one under the most rapid condition of fatting. 

 Two cows may be kept in milk with the same feed that will 

 keep three without. No practice is more impolitic, than 

 barely to sustain the stock through the winter, or a part of 

 the year, as is the case in too many instances, and allow 

 them to improve only when turned on grass in summer. 

 Besides subjecting them to the risk of disease, consequent 

 upon their privation of food, nearly half the year is lost in 

 their use, or in maturing them for profitable disposal, when 

 if one-third of the stock had been sold, the remainder would 

 have been kept in a rapidly improving condition, and at three 

 years of age, they would probably be of equal value as other- 

 wise at five or six. It is true that breed has much to do with 

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