224 Mode of Feeding Cattle. [April, 



give their cattle other descriptions of food. It was a remarkable 

 circumstance, that the bean and pea contained very little fat, and 

 as the wheels of the animal system required to be greased, these 

 kinds of grain would not serve for that purpose, although they 

 contained what made muscle. Although beans and peas were 

 good food, therefore, they were not good as the sole food of ani- 

 mals. Besides, they would observe, that from their different con- 

 stituents, plenty of oil seeds, and plenty of beans and peas, would 

 be far more profitable than if they were to give either of them 

 singly. That was the principle upon which the use of mixed food 

 was founded — to give all the substances the animal required, and 

 to gtve them at the cheapest rate; and the researches of the sci- 

 entific man were directed to discovering the means by which these 

 objects could be best accomplished. He had selected oil seeds, 

 but he might have taken potatoes or turnips for his illustration. 

 He had taken the oil seeds, however, because very great attention 

 had been recently directed to the value of those seeds in the feed- 

 ing of stock, and to the culture of flax, which they knew was ad- 

 vancing with great rapidity in the neighboring country of Ireland, 

 and which was even progressing in England at a great rate. He 

 might mention a remarkable fact connected with the improvement 

 of the flax cultivation in Ireland, that a society which was estab- 

 lished for the encouragement of that cultivation, and which had 

 its seat in Belfast, had an annual revenue of between ^£2,000 and 

 JE3,000; while the income of the Royal Agricultural Association 

 of Ireland was less than one-half of that sum. From the progress 

 the cultivation of flax was making in Ireland, it was very deserv- 

 ing of attention by those who thought a change in the rotation of 

 crops would be useful in other parts of the country. The person 

 who had most directed his attention, practically, to the effects of 

 feeding stock with mixed food, and to feeding on linseed, was Mr. 

 Warnes, of Frimlingham, Norfolk, and he (Professor J.) would 

 point out to them the principles on which he proceeded; and they 

 were sound scientific principles. He commenced by boiling the 

 linseed in water until it formed a kind of jelly; then he stirred in 

 a quantity of cut straw and chaff, and crushed corn. The mixture 

 was then poured into moulds, and afterwards served to the cattle, 

 Avarm, which they liked remarkably well. With this food the 

 cattle throve, and acquired beef in an extraordinary manner. By 

 this system of feeding, Mr. Warnes said he could compete with 

 any man, whether foreigner or not, as he could send cattle to 

 Smithfield for 4|d. per lb., and pay him an ample return; and in 

 illustration of this, he gives the results of two experiments, which 

 he would read to the meeting, and which were as follows: — 



Since he followed out box-feeding, he knew not a single in- 

 stance where he had not realized £S for every head of cattle he 



