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condition. This is what we call thrift, and such animals will 

 be kept in such condition upon even a less quantity of food 

 than others will consume, who do no credit to their keeping. 



But while no animals can be kept in good condition with- 

 out good keeping, I believe that the perfection of any ani- 

 mal depends essentially upon his good keeping from his birth ; 

 and that severity or hard fare, or negligence while in a grow- 

 ing state, do an injury to the constitution, and so stint the 

 growth that no after keeping can ever repair it. I do not 

 mean to imply that young animals should be excessively 

 fed and prematurely forced into fatness, for this is another 

 error prejudicial to the breeder's interest ; — but that the animal 

 should be so liberally and carefully fed that his growth should 

 be constantly stimulated, and his progress and development, if 

 I may be allowed this term, should receive no check. This is 

 a point, in my opinion, of great importance, which I wish the 

 farmers would seriously consider ; which, if properly attended 

 to, would make a most essential difference in the appearance 

 of their live-stock, and do much to redeem the degeneracy 

 which to a great extent prevails among them. 



I know no greater mistake that farmers commit in respect to 

 their animals, than in their variable and capricious treatment of 

 them ; sometimes filling them to repletion, at other times sub- 

 jecting them to the most severe usage ; taking them, for ex- 

 ample, from the pastures in the autumn in high condition, 

 and by hard usage in winter reducing them to mere skel- 

 etons before the spring. The animal constitution always 

 suffers essentially by such reverses. It is said that a sheep is 

 never fat but once. There is a great deal of truth in this 

 assertion. Perhaps it is to be received with some qualifica- 

 tions ; but I know how very difficult it is to raise an animal 

 from a low condition. The farmers prejudice very greatly 

 their own interest in suffering their milch cows to come out in 

 the spring in low condition. During the time they are dry, 

 they think it enough to give them the coarsest fodder, and that 

 in limited quantities ; this, too, at a time of pregnancy, when 



