DOMESTIC ANJMALS. 705 



persons? It Is, and should receive the same care and attention, if we would 

 keep them in a continuous healthy condition, so that the cows shall give the 

 largest flow of milk, and that other stock shall continue to thrive instead of the 

 hair becoming rough and staring and the animals losing flesh as well as heart ■ 

 and appetite. Even poultry should have something of a succulent or juicy 

 character to make up for the loss of green feed, insects, etc. 



Extra Value of Oatmeal or Flaxseed, Hoots, etc., in Winter 

 for Cows and Breeding Ewes.— Tlie editor of the National Live Stock Jour- 

 nal makes a very important suggestion in speaking upon the subject of roots or 

 oil meal to make up for the absence of green food, that for cows or breeding 

 ewes the oil meal or flaxseed, for these animals especially, have another and 

 important value, enabling them to produce their young without trouble. We 

 have such medicines of value in this respect for our own race, why not for 

 stock? He says: "Every dairyman, so far as he can, should supply himself 

 with 1 pt. of oil meal for each cow per day, or 3^ pt. of flaxseed, which should 

 be boiled to a jelly and given with her other food. Oil meal is worth all it costs 

 for food, besides being an excellent preventive of disease; and, also, has this 

 further property, that when a small quantity of it is fed to cows during the 

 winter we have never had any trouble with them at calving; and the small 

 quantity of oil left in it seems to perform the same ofiice as a little grass or car 

 rots and beets would, to cleanse the bowels as well as an emollient, or some 

 such property or effect, upon the reproductive organs; and to this end some 

 persons feed a small amount of flaxseed to their breeding ewes in winter vsith 

 a like success." Sensible and well put, and the author knows them to be of 

 extra value for all these purposes. 



Carrots, Beets, etc., their Value as Pood for Stock. — It has 

 been heretofore claimed that the chief reason why the above named articles 

 were valuable for stock was to avoid costiveness, and that carrots alone 

 possessed this property— pectine, or pectic acid— which has the power of dis- 

 solving or gelatinizing— turning to jelly— other kinds of food, which not only 

 gave health and vigor, but also gave brightness to the eye, and a smooth, glossy 

 coat to the animal. But a horse-breeder, in France reports having fed his 

 horses for 20 years on parsnips, instead of carrots and oats as formerly, with a 

 remarkable success, his stock showing a greater vivacity of spirit and a sleek- 

 ness of coat than when fed on carrots. And Yeomans, the celebrated veterinar- 

 ian, informs us that this beneficial result, from feeding these roots, arises not 

 so much from their nutritive properties as from their effects in gelatinizing and 

 dissolving other foods, thereby rendering them more easy of digestion. Por- 

 tions of other coarse food, otherwise almost indigestible, when acted upon by 

 this principle in these roots, are easily dissolved by the gastric juices, and a 

 thorough and perfect digestion is obtained. 



Bemarks. — It has been well known that apples contain this principle — peo- 

 tine, or pectic acid — in a great degree; hence, we can account for both horses 

 and cattle thriving so well, as many have reported, while being fed a peck of 

 apples morning and night, or when allowed to run for a time in the orchard, 

 where they ate of them at pleasure. (See Apples for Horses, etc) But 



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