BRITISH OXEN. 103 



when fed with hay, the butter was 3-9 and 4-6 per cent. ; when fed with por- 

 tions of potatoes, hay, and bean Hour, the butter was 6-7 and 4-9 per cent. ; 

 with hay and potatoes, 4'(3 and 4-9 per cent. These facts, together with Bous- 

 singault's experiments, and the observations of dairymen in diflerent localities, 

 are opposed to Dumas's theory, that the butter in milk arises solely from the fat 

 contained in t!ie food ; for it may reasonably be referred to the starch and other un- 

 azotized elements of the food, as maintained by Liebig. Pototoes are particular- 

 ly favorable to the flow of milk and increase of butter, from the starch they con- 

 tain ; so is malt refuse. Turter and beer are also well known to be favorable to 

 the production of butter, both in the milk of woman and of the cow, although 

 these fluids do not contain fat.* The quantity ofcascine (cheese) in the milk 

 was found by Doctor Playfair to depend on the quantity of albumen in the food 

 supplied on different days to the cow, and to the supposed destruction of the tis- 

 sues by muscular exercise. Peas and beans are the food which yields most 

 caseine. Pasturing in the open field is more favorable to the formation of caseine, 

 while stall-feeding is more favorable to the formation of butter. The proportion 

 of butter in the milk of woman is increased by rest and the diminution of the re- 

 spiratory oxidation. 



In the neighborhood of towns and villages, where milk and other products of 

 the cow are in demand for the market, a good food for rearing the young cattle 

 may be supplied by dissolving pearl sago in boiling water. Eight quarts of this 

 solution of pearl sago will cost only half the price of the same quantity of milk, and 

 Avill prove even more nutritious than the latter. Oil-cake is an excellent food, along 

 with turnips, to fatten calves, and the manure the cattle drop while upon thisdiet 

 is very serviceable to the crops. An Ayrshire farmer, who uses annually about 

 £120 worth of oil-cake for his cattle, assures us that disease scarcely ever occurs 

 among his stock, although formerly he used to lose many of them, especially 

 calves, which were frequently carried off by that fatal and malignant malady 

 commonly called black leg, but which has entirely disappeared since he has com- 

 menced the use of oil-cake. Turnips, with a liberal allowance of oil-cake, are 

 found conducive to early maturity. After a long course of experience, this gra- 

 zier is of opinion that cows should calve during February ; for when born later 

 than this month, the calves are, while in the farmer's possession, an eyesore, 

 Irom their being so far behind their compeers in growth : but if calved earlier 

 than February, the cows are apt to fail in their secretion of milk before the grass 

 can afford them a good bite. 



Mr. M'liryde is of opinion that, to obtain the greatest amount of beef in the 

 shortest time, the cattle should be tied up by the necks in stalls, and fed for six 

 or eight weeks upon turnips, with oil-cake, bruised oats, beans, &c. Mr. M'Cul- 

 loch, factor at Logan, whose opinion is of great weight, thinks that ordinary 

 sized cattle would feed fully as well tied up in properly ventilated houses ; but 

 that large cattle would do better in hammels, where they had a small space to 

 move about, and which prevented their feet giving way. He observes that the 

 cattle in the hammels consume more food than those stall-fed ; but whether this 

 extra food is expended in the production of motion or of fat he has not ascertain- 

 ed. From his experience he prefers cuttinij turnips into slices of from one and 

 a half to two inches thick ; and while this thickness prevents some little waste of 

 the turnips from being too much reduced, it, at the same time, allows the cattle 

 to masticate with ease, and to lill their stomachs with less trouble, and conse- 

 quently there is less expenditure of the body. The system adopted at Logan 

 Mains, in giving oil-cake to cattle, is to grow and to preserve the seed, which is 

 bruised and boiled along with equal proportions of bruised oats and bear, and of 

 this mixture, from four to six pounds per day are given hot, after the cattle have 

 been lied up about two months. The expense of this diet is amply repaid, and 

 the manure is very much enriched. When oats are at a low price, a few pounds 

 of them per day may be advantageously added to the turnips. If lumper potatoes 

 can be had for not more than seven or eight shillings per boll, it might be profit- 

 able to feed cattle upon them. 



* On the fHi-m of Mr. Castle of Northboume, in Kent, a cow, having got access to some fresh brewed 

 strong ale hit out to cool, drank so plentifully of it that she was shortly taken ill, and died in a few 

 hours in a state of intoxication, although proper remedies were administered by a farrier who was 

 ■culled in. 



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