EFFECT OF ABSENCE OF LIGHT. 609 



closer covering to quiet and gentle breeds of cattle or sheep, which feed 

 without restlessness and ([uickly fatten. 



A proper attention to the warmth of his cattle or sheep, therefore, is of 

 great practical consequence to the feeder of stock. By keeping them 

 warm he diminishes the quantity of food which is necessary to sustain 

 them, and leaves a larger proportion for the production of beef or 

 mutton. 



Various experiments have been lately published, which confirm the 

 opinions above deduced from theoretical considerations. Of these I shall 

 only mention one by Mr. Childers, in which 20 sheep were folded in 

 the open field, and 20 of nearly equal weight were placed under a shed 

 in a yard. Both lots were fed for three months — January, February, 

 and March — upon turnips, as many as they chose to eat, half a pound 

 of linseed cake, and half a pint of barley each sheep per day, with a 

 little hay and salt. The sheep in the field consumed the same quantity 

 of food, all the barley and oil-cake, and about 19 lbs. of turnips per day, 

 from first to last, and increased on the whole 36 stones 8 lbs. Those 

 under the shed consumed at first as much food as the others, but after 

 the third week they eat 2 lbs. of turnips each less in the day, and in the 

 ninth week, again 2 lbs. less, or only 15 lbs. a day. Of the linseed-cake 

 they also eat about one-third less than the other lot, and yet they in- 

 creased in weight 56 stones 6 lbs., or 20 stones more than the others. 



Thus the cold and exercise in the field caused the one lot to convert 

 more of their food into dung, the other more of it into mutton. 



But why did the sheltered sheep also consume less food ? Why did 

 they not eat the rest of the food offered them, and convert it also into 

 mutton ? Because the stomach of an animal will not do more than a 

 certain limited amount of work in the way of digesting, after the wants 

 of the body are fully supplied. When circumstances cause the sustain- 

 ing quantity of food to increase, the digestive powers are stimulated into 

 unusual activity, and though plenty of food be placed before the animal 

 it may be unable to consume and digest more than is barely sufficient to 

 keep it in condition. If the sustaining portion be lessened, by placing 

 the animal in new circumstances, more food maybe digested than is ab- 

 solutely necessary to supply the daily waste — that is to say, the animal 

 may increase in weight. But the unusual stimulus being removed, it 

 may not now be inclined, perhaps not be able, to digest so large a quan- 

 tity as it did before when that large quantity was necessary to sustain its 

 body — that is to say, that while it increases in weight it will also con- 

 sume less food. 



4°. The absence of light has also a material influence upon the effects 

 of food in increasing the size of animals. Whatever excites attention in 

 an animal, awakens, disturbs, or makes it restless, appears to increase 

 the natural waste, and to diminish the effect of food in rapidly enlarging 

 the body. The rapidity with which fowls are fattened in the dark is 

 well known to rearers of poultry.* In India, the habit prevails of sew- 

 ing up the eyelids of the wild hog-deer, the spotted deer, and other wild 



• It is astonishing with what rapidity fowls (dorklngs) increase when well fed, kept in con- 

 fined cribs, and in a darkened room. Fed on a mixture of 4 lbs. of oatmeal, 1 lb. of suet, 

 and J lb. of sugar, with milk for drink five or six'limes a day in summer, a dorking will add 

 to its weight 2 lbs. in a week, sometimes IJ lbs. in four days. A young turkey will lay on 3 

 .Ds. a week, under the same treatmenL 



