10 ON THE REARING OF CATTLE. 



substituted, witli turnips instead of cake, the condition and 

 qualit}^ of the animal would he very much improved, and a 

 considerable saving- of expense be effected, to say nothing- of 

 the improvement in the manure. 



All veg-etables contain, ready formed (v^-'hich they extract 

 from thefood on which they live), the substances of which 

 the parts of animals are composed. The animal conse- 

 quently draws, ready formed, the materials of its own body 

 from the vegetable food it eats. The starch, sugar, and 

 g-um in vegetables are to supply carbon for respiration. 

 Carnivorous animals obtain it from the fat of the food; 

 starving animals from the fat of their own bodies; and 

 young animals, which live upon milk, by the milk sugar it 

 contains. In the young animal we find an excess of life ; it 

 has to increase as well as sustain itself. In the full-grown 

 animal we find the daily waste of substance which is carried 

 out of the body in the excretions, made up by the gluten, 

 phosphates, and the saline substances in its food, and a 

 balance kept up between the powers of life and the bodily 

 structure it simply has to sustain itself. In the old animal, 

 when life is diminished, we observe a proportionate decrease 

 of bodily substance. 



It is interesting and wonderful, when we thus trace the 

 existence of the bodily structure of all animals ready formed 

 in the vegetable — Vv-hich property in vegetables is formed 

 during their growth — is derived from sources purely gaseous 

 and inorganic, by chemical, mechanical, and physical opera- 

 tions. It is the duty of the practical farmer to adopt these 

 methods for improving the soil ; but this forms no part of 

 my subject. 



Sheep. — The additional value to your flock, by this mode 

 of management, and especially in giving them some dry 

 food, such as hay or corn, before lambing is ver}' great. It 

 gives firmness of fibre, and adds greater vigour to life, a 

 greater activity to the vital powers, by which alone it is 

 capable of resisting disease, and of arriving at an early 

 maturity. The improvement of the fleece, by such a course, 

 will be fifty per cent. The old breed were kept from two 

 years to two years and a half old before sold, and rarely ex- 

 ceeded 10 lb. or 15 lb. a quarter. It is true, breed has much 

 to do with this question; but in sheep of the same breed, 

 kept in different ways, a difference of twenty -five per cent, 

 may be frequently observed. To insure a healthy offspring-. 



