132 AGRICULTURE. 



liness, and quiet, which influence the fattening of 

 cattle. We shall mention them sepatately, and add 

 a few words to each in explanation. 



1st. Constitution. If this be not sound and heal- 

 thy, no care or expense will be sufficient to cor- 

 rect it. The animal will want appetite, or have too 

 much of it, and what it eats will not better its con- 

 dition. 



2d. Alteration. The flesh of unaltered males is 

 hard, fibrous, and ill-flavoured, and that of females, 

 not spayed, far inferior to the flesh of those which 

 have undergone that operation. Where either are 

 early and completely altered, the animals become 

 more docile, less restless, and fat with great facil- 

 ity. 



3d. Temperature. Whoever makes the experi- 

 ment will find that this consideration is very impor- 

 tant. The cold of winter, the heat of summer, and 

 the capricious character of the spring, are all ad- 

 verse to the fattening of cattle, though perhaps not 

 equally so. The autumn, on the other hand, long 

 and temperate, is the true season for that business, 

 not only from the greater abundance of food which 

 is then to be found, but because the transpiration 

 of the animal is then first checked, and immediately 

 converted into tallow. And, 



4th. Age. Tallow is formed from the surplus 

 nourishment given to animals beyond that necessa- 

 ry to their mere physical development ; whence it 

 follows, that those which have not attained their 

 full growth are fatted with difficulty, and only by 

 extraordinary means. Calves, for example, can 

 only be fatted by great quantities of milk, to which 

 must often be added eggs, barley, oat meal, or the 

 flour of beans and pease ; and with all this abundance 

 and selection of food, they yield little interior fat 

 or tallow. Whereas oxen, at six years of age, with 

 correspondent treatment, give large quantities of 

 that article. Old cattle are also, from loss of teeth, 



