244 



Digestion. 



Vol. XII. 



A hen will be five or six weeks in fattinw, a 

 large stag two months or longer, to bring 

 him to his full weight. The best diet is 

 barley-meal mixed with water, given in 

 troughs that have a flat board over them, to 

 keep dirt from falling in. A tnrnip with the 

 leaves attached, or a hearted cabbage, may 

 now and then be thrown down to amnse 

 them. Some use plain oats, but barley- 

 meal is preferable, acting more quickly. 

 Cramming is unnecessary, though it may 

 hasten the process. When they have ar- 

 rived at the desired degree of fatness, those 

 which are not wanted for immediate use 

 must have no more food given them than is 

 just sufficient to keep them in that state, 

 otherwise the flesh will become red and in- 

 flamed, and of course less palatable and 

 wholesome. The turkey differs from the 

 rest of our poultry in being fit for the table 

 after its youth is past. Very k\v of the 

 la.rge turkeys that are brought to market 

 are less than 18 montlis old ; many are dou- 

 ble that age. Nor are they the worse, pro- 

 vided the lady of the house be informed of 

 the circumstance, and so enabled to leave a 

 due interim between the killing and the 

 cooking. 



The hen turkey, contrary to the state- 

 ments of some writers, does now and then 

 erect her tail and strut like the male, and 

 that, too, without any diminution of her 

 feminine virtues. The manners of the cock 

 are not prepossessing; he is vain, ungallant, 

 careless of his young, a bully, though not 

 always a coward, the most selfish creature 

 in the poultry-yard, except the musk-drake, 

 sometimes also apt to be seized with odd 

 fancies that render him useless. Their sup- 

 posed antipathy to the colour of red or scar- 

 let, I believe to be an unfounded prejudice. 

 They display less individual attachment to 

 man than most other poultry, though they 

 have equally, or more, thrown themselves 

 on the protection of the race of mankind. 

 They are called stupid, but mark the intelli- 

 gence and amiability displayed by every 

 look and action of a hen with her young. 

 And yet little real alteration of her former 

 manner is apparent. The strut that seemed 

 foolishly pompous now strikes us as justly 

 proud and cautious; the eye in which only 

 affectation was apparent, now glances with 

 anxiety and beams with tenderness. Tlie 

 discordant voice has now an object in its 

 call, and may be heard almost to whisper in 

 subdued notes of gentle affection. Thus 

 even, in the poor bird that we rear, admire 

 and kill, a higher charm and elevation is 

 added by the exercise of those holy affec- 

 tions which the beneficent Creator of all has 



given us for our comfort. — London Agricul- 

 tural Gazette. 



Digestion. 



HuNGEU and thirst are the preliminary 

 steps to digestion ; they constitute a law im- 

 planted in the animal economy, for the pur- 

 pose of inducing the living being to take 

 such nourishment as is required to sustain 

 that waste of the system which animated 

 nature is continually undergoing. If the 

 dictates of the sensation of hunger and thirst 

 are rationally obeyed, satisfaction and healthy 

 digestion are the result; but if, on the con- 

 trary, these important sensations are ne- 

 glected, weakness and disease must neces- 

 sarily ensue. Appetite, or, in its more 

 advanced stage, hunger, teaches animals to 

 seek for solid food, and thirst suggests the 

 propriety of rendering the solid mass more 

 pulpy and dilute by the employment of drink. 

 Experience and reason, both in man and 

 brutes, must in some measure direct the se- 

 lection of the proper objects to be employed 

 for these purposes. I was some years ago 

 consulted by a worthy individual with regal-d 

 to the propriety of fasting, as a religious ob- 

 servance. I told him that the sensation of 

 hunger and thirst constituted a most import- 

 ant law in the animal economy, destined by 

 the Creator for the most beneficent purposes; 

 that it ought to be obeyed as a matter of 

 duty, and that if infringed, some prejudicial 

 result would necessarily ensue: because it 

 is no argument in favour of any such expe- 

 riment upon human life that existence does 

 not terminate upon its adoption, or that the 

 symptoms of some frightful disease are not 

 instantly ushered in. The seeds of future 

 mischief may be sown by one experiment, 

 and may only lie dormant until a second or 

 succeeding infringement shall cause them 

 to spring forth into living activity. In the 

 course of an extensive series of experiments 

 upon cows, it was found that, when they 

 were not supplied with sufficient food during 

 one day, the product of milk was a day or 

 two in reaching its former average; thus 

 demonstrating that the animal had been 

 weakened by the abstinence, inasmuch as it 

 took a longer period to reach its ordinary 

 condition than was required to reduce it. 

 The milk, in such an experiment, corres- 

 ponds with the muscle and fntty portions of 

 the body of animals which do not supply 

 milk: hence abstinence in all animals must 

 be followed by a diminution of the weight 

 of the body. It has been well remarked by 

 Liebig, that " in the process of starvation it 

 is not only the fat which disappears, but also 



