AGEICULTURB AND THE HOESE. 399 



lives of young children are trifled with by the use of 

 *' artificial food," when they shpuld be confined, as 

 nearly as possible, to the nourishment which Nature 

 provides for them, says, '' There the baby of the 

 lower animal has the advantage. He is fed on natural 

 food only, from the beginning, because his father and 

 mother don't know enough to kill him. Man, the 

 reasoning being, is defeated by the animals, who pos- 

 sess instinct only. They never, for amusement nor 

 curiosity, experiment upon the stomachs and lives of 

 their children, with the desire of seeing how much 

 indigestion they will bear with impunity. I am not 

 alone in the belief that the excessive mortality at an 

 early period of infancy is, very much of it, caused by 

 attempts to substitute for natural nourishment that 

 which will save time and trouble to the mother, and by 

 attempts to force growth." With Dr. Buckingham's 

 views of the proper food for the young of all animals 

 we must all agree ; but, if he were as familiar with the 

 " attempts to force growth " in our stables as he is in 

 our nurseries, I am afraid he would hesitate before 

 drawing an unqualified illustration from the former for 

 the benefit of the latter. I agree that the father and 

 mother of the colt "don't know enough to kill him; " 

 but the owner does, oftentimes, know just enough. And 

 the same destruction which the physician witnesses with 

 distress and shame in his practice, the farmer may, 

 with equal distress and shame, see in his stables ; in a 

 less fatal form, it is true, but in a form none the less 



