WITH PREPARED FOOD. 51 



not tliouglit it necessary to make any difference in the calcu- 

 lation on that account. 



"1 have now g-iven you the result of my trial of two 

 different systems of feeding', and also estimates of their cost, 

 and will next endeavour to answer a Cjuestion which has 

 already been frequently put to me, viz., What are the 

 peculiar advantag'es attendant upon this system, which should 

 induce farmers to incur an expense of 50/. (price of appa- 

 ratus and cost of fixing-) for the sake of introducing- it ? One 

 of the principal advantag-es is, that the animals make g-reater 

 prog-ress at the same cost. In all the instances that I have 

 heard of or seen, the cattle treated in this way have fed 

 unusually fast. In my own case, this was very striking-. 

 The twelve bullocks mentioned above were, in March, taken 

 lean from the straw-yard ; quite unfit, in fact, for tying- up 

 to feed, except by way of experiment ; yet they made such 

 rapid prog-ress that some of them were sold to the butchers 

 at 7s. 3d. per stone, at the end of May ; and the last were 

 sold the third week in June, in g-ood killing- condition. One 

 of the main causes of this rapid prog-ress is, I conceive, the 

 perfect state of health the animals enjoy. Linseed-oil is a 

 mild purg-ative; and, when combined with meal, especially 

 bean-meal, the bowels and skin are kept uniformly in a state 

 of health, which I think cannot be surpassed, and which I 

 never before saw equalled. 



" Another reason which appears to conduce much to their 

 thriving- is, that the food prepared in this way approaches so 

 much more nearly to the natural food of the animal. In 

 g-rass, and other g-reen food, we find a very small per-centag-e 

 of nourishing- ing-redients combined with a larg'e proportion of 

 woody fibre, water, and other matters, which are not fitted 

 for assimilation b}' the animal, and are rejected as useless, 

 after the nourishing- parts have been extracted by dig-estion. 

 These apparently superfluous matters have, however, very 

 important uses ; one of the most .striking- of which is, to g-ive 

 bulk to the food, and therefore distension to the stomach. 

 If the stomach is not moderately filled by a meal, those 

 muscles are not called into active exercise, which tend so 

 much to promote healthy dig-estion, by keeping- the food in 

 constant motion ; and, accordingh', we find that if we supply 

 a feeding- bullock with cake or meal, which, though highly 

 nourishing, lies in a small bulk, the animal will, if not sup- 

 plied Vvith a sufficiency of other food, eat a jjortion of his 

 litter, old thatch, or almost any other vegetable matter. 



