348 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aco. 



care. For new made, or perfectly swe-it butter, 

 solid, packed iu tube, maybe made into "lumps,'" 

 after it roaches market, ])y the use of butter moulds, 

 without being re- worked. And 1 think that four- 

 fifths of all the lump butter sold iu Boston and other 

 large northern cities, is so made from tub butter. 

 Groiun, July 3, 185i. w. 



FEEDING ANIMALS. 



THE FOOD MUST SUPPLY THE SAIJNE ANB KARTIIY 



MATTERS CONTAINED IX AND DAILY REJECTED 



BY THE UODV. 



The full-grown animal daily rejects a quantity 

 of salhic and earthy matter withdrawn from its 

 wasting tissues ; while tlic growing animal ap- 

 propriates also every day an additional portion in 

 the fornuition of its increasing parts. The food 

 must yield all this, or the functions Avill be im- 

 perfectly performed. 



1. The flesh, the blood, and the other fluids of 

 the body contain much saline matter of various 

 kinds — sulphates, muriates, phosphates, and other 

 saline compounds of potash, soda, lime, and mag- 

 nesia. The dry muscle and blood of the ox leave, 

 when burned, about 4!^ per cent, of saline matter 

 or ash. The composition of this saline matter is 

 represented in the following : — 



Blood. Flesh. 



Phosphate of soda, (tribasic,) - - 16,77 45.10 



Chloride of sodium, (common salt,) - 69,31 \ 45 oi 



Chloride of potassium, - - - 6 12 i 



Sulph;ito of soda, - - - 3.85 trace. 



Phosphate of magnesia, - - - 4.10) 



0.\ide, with a little phosphate of iron, S.2S > 0.84 



Sulphate of lime, gypsum, and loss - 1.45 ) 



All these saline substances have their special 

 functions to perform in the animal economy, and 

 of each of them an undetermined quantity daily 

 escapes from tlie body in the perspiration, in the 

 urine, or in the solid excretions. This quantity, 

 therelbri', must be daily restored by the food. 



2. It is interesting to remark how tlie mineral 

 matter differs in kind in the different parts of the 

 body. Thus, blood contains much soda and lit- 

 tle potash — the former in the serum, the latter in 

 the gloltules — the cartilages much soda and no 

 potash, and the muscles much potash and little 

 soda. So phosphate of lime is the earth of bones, 

 and phosphate of magnesia the cartli of the mus- 

 cles. So also the presence of fluorine character- 

 ises the bones and teeth, and that of silica, the 

 horny parts, hairs and feathers of animals — while 

 an abundance of iron distinguishes the blood and 

 the hair. 



The distinction now noticed between the blood 

 and the muscle is not brought clearly out by the 

 analysis above given of the comparative composi- 

 tion of the saline matter of each. It is seen more 

 clearly in the following comparison : — 



The mineral matter or ash 



From the blood, therefore, as a common store- 

 house, each part obtains, by a kind of selection, 

 the mineral matter which it especially requires. 



It has not yot been accurately determined by 

 experiment how much saline matter must neces- 

 sarily be excreted every day from the body of a 

 healthy man, or in Avhat proportions the diticrent 

 inorganic substances are present in what is ex- 

 creted ; but it is satisfactorily ascertained, that 

 without a certain sufficimt supply of all ofthem, 

 the animal will languisli and decay, even though 

 carbon and nitrogen, in the form of starch and 

 gluten, be abundantly given to it. It is a wis'.* 

 and beautiful provision of nature, therefore, that 

 plants are so organized as to refuse to grow in a 

 soil from which they cannot readily obtain an 

 adequate supply of soluble inorganic food, — 

 since that .saline matter, which ministers first to 

 their own wants, is afterwards surrendered by 

 them to the animals tliey are destined to feed. 



Thus, the dead earth and the living animal ars 

 but parts of the same system, — links in the same 

 endless chain of natural existences. The plant i?: 

 the connecting bond l)y which they are tied to- 

 gether on the one hand, — the decaying animal 

 matter, which returns to the soil, connects thcix; 

 on the other. 



3. The bancs of the animal are supplied with 

 their mineral matter from the same original source, 

 — the vegetable on which they live. The dried 

 bones of the cow contain 55 percent, of phosphat* 

 of lime with a little phosphate of magnesia, those 

 of the sheep 70, of the hoi'se G7, of the calf 54, 

 and of the pig 52 lbs. of these phosphates in everj' 

 hundred of dry bone. All this must come from 

 the vegetable food. Of this bone-earth, also, a 

 portion — varying in quantity with the health, the 

 food, and the ago of the animal — is every day re- 

 jected. The food, therefore, must contain a daily 

 supply, or that which passes off will be taken from 

 tlie substance of the living bones, and the animal 

 will become feeble. 



The importance of this bone-earth will be more 

 apparent if we consider, — First, that in animals 

 the bones form not only a very important but a 

 very large part of their bodies. The body of a 

 full-grown man contains 9 to 12 lbs. of clean dry 

 bone, yielding from 5 to 8 lbs. of bone-earth. In 

 the horse and sheep tlie fresh moist bone has been 

 estimated at one-eighth of the live, or in the sheep 

 to one-fifth of the dead weight, and to one-third 

 of the weight of the flesh . Second, that in a 

 growing sheep the increase of bone-earth amounts 

 to about 3 per cent, of the whole increase in the 

 live weight. And — Third , that every hundred 

 pounds weight indicates 5 or of phosphate of 

 lime. 



It is kindly provided by nature, therefore, that 

 a certain jDroportion of this ingredient of bones is 

 always a.ssociated with the gluten of plants in its 

 various forms, — with the fibrin of animal muscle 

 and with the curd of milk. Ilence man, from hia 

 mixed food, and animals, from the vegetables on 

 which they live, are enabled, along with the ni- 

 trogen they require, to extract also a sufficiency 

 of bone-earth to maintain their bodies in a healthy 

 condition. 



TUE rOOD MU.ST SUPPLY THE WASTE OR IXCREA,«E 

 OF FAT IN ANIMALS. 



Every one knows that in some animals there is 

 much more fat than in others, but in all a certain 

 portion exists, more or less intermingled witli the 



