Book II. REARING, &c. DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 307 



stitutes abundance ; but, by withholding this additional quantity, an animal, especially 

 if young, may go on eating for several years, without ever attaining to fatness. Properly 

 treated, a well fed ox, of moderate size, will fatten on a rich pasture in from four to six 

 months ; and, in stalls or covered pens, with green or steamed food, in a shorter period. 



2072. /;; young, growing animals the powers of digestion are so great that they require 

 less rich food than such as are of mature age ; for the same reason, also, they require more 

 exercise. If rich food is supplied in liberal quantities, and exercise withheld, diseases 

 are generated, the first of which may be excessive fatness ; growth is impeded by very 

 rich food, for experience shows that the coarsest-fed animals have uniformly the largest 

 bones. Common sense will suggest the propriety of preferring a medium course between 

 very rich and very poor nutriment. 



2073. Mastication and cooking. Unless food be thoroughly deprived of its vegetative 

 powers before it enters the stomach, the whole nourishment which it is capable of 

 affording cannot be derived from it. In the case of the leaves and stalks of vegetables, 

 this is in general effected by mastication ; but it requires some care to accomplish it in 

 the case of grains. Hence the advantage of mixing corn given to horses or cattle with 

 chaff or chopped straw; and hence it is supposed by some, that the instinct which fowls 

 have to swallow small stones is intended by nature for the same object. But the most 

 effectual mode of destroying the living principle is by the application of heat; and if 

 vegetable food of every kind could be steamed or boiled before it was given to animals 

 (at least in winter, and for fattening for the shambles, or feeding for milk), it is 

 rendered probable, by analogy and experiment, that much more nourishment would be 

 derived from it. 



2074. Salt, it appears, from various experiments, may be advantageously given to 

 most animals in very small quantities ; it acts as a whet to the appetite, promotes the 

 secretion of bile, and, in general, is favourable to health and activity. In this way only 

 can it be considered as preventing or curing diseases ; unless perhaps in the case of 

 worms, to which all saline and bitter substances are known to be injurious. 



2075. That degree of heat which is natural to animals in their original country, or 

 has become so by habit and the breeding for successive generations in a cold climate, is 

 necessary to their wellbeing ; and a somewhat increased degree in the cold months, or 

 diminished degree in such as are oppressively warm, is advantageous in the fattening 

 process. Where a sufficient degree of warmth to promote the ordinary circulation of the 

 blood is not produced by the natural climate, or by exercise, it must be supplied by an 

 artificial climate. Houses and sheds are the obvious resources both for this purpose, and 

 for protection from extremes of weather. Cold rains and northerly winds are highly 

 injurious, by depriving the external surface of the body of caloric, more rapidly than it 

 can be supplied from within by respiration, and the action of the stomach ; and also by 

 contracting the pores of the skin, so as to impede circulation. When an animal happens 

 to shed its covering, whether of hair, wool, or feathers, at such inclement seasons, the 

 effects on its general health are highly injurious. The excessive heats of summer, by 

 expanding all the parts of the animal frame, occasion a degree of lassitude, and want of 

 energy, even in the stomach and intestines ; and while the animal eats and digests less 

 food than usual, a greater waste than usual takes place by perspiration. Nature has 

 provided trees, rocks, caverns, hills, and waters, to moderate these extremes of heat and 

 weather; and man imitates them by hovels, sheds, and other buildings, according to 

 particular circumstances. 



2076. Good air and water it may seem unnecessary to insist on ; but cattle and horses, 

 and even poultry, pent up in close buildings, where there are no facilities for a change of 

 the atmosphere, often suffer on this account. A slight degree of fever is produced at 

 first, and, after a time, when the habit of the animal becomes reconciled to such a state, 

 a retarded circulation, and general decay or diminution of the vital energies, take place. 



2077. Water ought to be soft and pure, as being a better solvent than such as is hard and charged with 

 earthy particles. It ought to be of a moderate temperature, under that of the open air in hot weather, 

 and exceeding it in winter. Deep wells afford this ditlerence. In particular cases, as in those of animals 

 in a suckling state or milked by man, warmed water has been founc 1 advantageous. Meals, or other light 

 rich matters, are sometimes mixed with it ; but it does not clearlv appear, except in the last case, that 

 liquid food is so generally advantageous for fattening animals, as that which being equally rich is solid. 

 Some judgment is requisite as to the time most proper for giving water to animals. In general, it does 

 not appeirr necessary to supply it immediately after eating, for animals in a natural state, or pasturing in 

 a field, generally lie" down after filling themselves, and after the process of digestion seems to have gone 

 on for some time, thev go in quest of water. Perhaps the immediate dilution of food, after being taken 

 into the stomach, with water, may, at the same time, weaken the digestive powers, by diluting the gastric 

 juice. At all events, the free use of water at any time, but especially during meals, is found to weaken 

 digestion in the human species. As animals of every kind become reconciled to any habit, not ultimately 

 injurious to health, perhaps for housed animals a stated quantity of water, given an hour, or an hour and 

 a half after what may be called their meals, may be the be*t mode. 



2078. Moderate exercise ought not to be dispensed with, where the flavour of animal 

 produce is any object ; it is known to promote circulation, perspiration, and digestion, 

 and by consequence to invigorate the appetite. Care must be taken, however, not to 

 carry exercise to that point where it becomes a labour instead of a recreation. In some 



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