1847.] Mofh of Feeding Cattle. 223 



of sugar; and then there was besides the third constituent, which 

 was represented by the white of an egg. Now it was of the very 

 greatest importance what description of food was used, and what 

 proportion it contained of these three kinds of matter, as bearing 

 upon the purpose it was intended to serve. Cattle had in their 

 bo(hes diU'erent kinds of matter, also, but particularly flesh and fat; 

 and the farmer should be sufficiently acquainted with the nature 

 of food, to be able to distinguish what lie should use when he 

 wished to produce fat, or when he wished to produce fat and lean 

 both together; and the food which was given would eifect the one 

 or the other of those purposes, according to its composition. The 

 white of an egg or albumen would supply nothing, or nearly so, 

 to the animal but muscle. The fat went directly to form fat. 

 The starch in food kept the body warm, and, when fat was wanted, 

 served the purpose of making the oily matter more readily become 

 fat in the body of the animal. 



Now, in fattening cattle, as in everything else, using the proper 

 means produced the proper effects; and after the explanation 

 which he had given, they would see at once that a mixture of food 

 was better than the use of one kind alone. If they wanted to lay 

 on muscle, they w^ould feed with food containing the largest 

 amount of gluten; and if they wanted to lay on the fat, they 

 would give starch and oily substances, and only a small propor- 

 tion of the other ingredient. Selecting food in any other way 

 would not serve the purpose they had in view in the most econo- 

 mical way. He had a table representing the different proportions 

 of fat in the food which they were in the habit of using; but he 

 would illustrate what he had to say by a few simple illustrations. 

 Wheat contained two percent of fat, and sometimes a little more; 

 but oats contained sometimes from four to five per cent, or about 

 double the amount w^hich was to be found in wheat. Oats were 

 next to Indian corn in this respect, the latter of which they were 

 aware contained a large amount of fat. Gluten was the matter 

 out of which the muscle was produced, and there was more of that 

 substance in the bean or the pea, than in the oat; but the oat was 

 better than wheat. But there was another kind of food used for 

 fattening cattle, namely, oilcake, which contained a greater amount 

 of fat than the same weight of any other kind of grain. Linseed, 

 from which oilcake is made, differed from other descriptions of 

 grain, in containing a greater amount of fat, and a larger amount 

 of gluten likewise, with the exception of the bean. Now, practi- 

 cal men have derived great advantage from feeding their cattle on 

 oil seeds; that food, from the peculiarity of its composition, laying 

 on fat and muscle at the same time. Oilcake, however, w^as the 

 best food, only when the greatest amount of fat was required; and, 

 according to the purpose which they had in view, farmers would 



