1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



34a 



muscular and other parts of the body.* This fat 



is subject to waste, as the muscles are, and there- 

 fore must be restored by the food. All the vege- 

 table substances usually cultivated on our farms 

 contain, as we have seen, a notable quantity of 

 fatty matter, Avhich seems to be intended by na- 

 ture to replace that which disappears naturally 

 from the body. 



A full-grown animal, in which the fat may be 

 regarded as in a stationary condition, requires no 

 more fat in its foud than is necessary to restore 

 the natural loss. In such animal the quantity of 

 fatty matter found in the excretions is sensibly 

 equal to that which is contained in the food. 



But to a growing animal, and especially to one 

 wliich is falieniiiL'-, the supply of fatty matter in 

 the food must be greater than to one in which no 

 increase ol' fat takes place. It is indeed held, 

 that, in the absence of oil in the food, an animal 

 may convert a portion of the stai-ch of its food into 

 iat, — may become liit while living upon vegetable 

 food in which no large proportion of fatty matter 

 is know to exist. And it can hardly be doubted, 

 [ think, that the organs of the living animal are 

 endowed with this power of forming in a case of 

 emergenc}- — that is, when it does not exist ready 

 formed in the food — as much fatty matter as is 

 necessary to oil the machinery, so to speak, of its 

 body, iiut the natural source of the fat is the oil 

 contained in tlie food it eats, and an animal, if in- 

 clined to fatten at all, will always do so most read- 

 ily when it lives upon food in which oil or fat 

 i'ounds. 



It docs not however follow, because fat abounds 

 in the food, that the animal should become fatter, 

 — since if starch be delicient in the food, the fat 

 coatainiog no nitrogen, may be decomjjosed and 

 worked up for what may be called the purposes 

 of respiration. This working up of the fat, al- 

 ready existing in the body, is (me cause of the ra- 

 pid emaciation and failing away of fat animals 

 when tlie usual supply of food is lessened, or for 

 a time altogether withheld. The fat is indeed 

 considered i)y some as nothing more than a store 

 laid up by nature in a time of plenty to meet the 

 wants of resj'iration when a season of scarcity ar- 

 rives, — that a fat animal is like a steam-frigate 

 heavily lailen with fuel, which it burns av;ay dur- 

 ing its voy ge for the purpose of keeping up the 

 riteam. 



It is by reference to this supposed purpose ol 

 the fat of the body, and to the possibility of using 

 it up for the purposes of respiration, that the 

 beneiits of repose, of shelter, of moderate warmth, 

 of the al)sence of light, and even of a state of tor 

 por, in conducing to tlie more speedy fiittening of 

 cattle and sheep, are explained. Exercise causes 

 more frequent respirations, and hence a grcuter 

 waste of that part of the I'ood which should be 

 laid on in the lijrm of fat. Cold also has the 

 same effect, since mm-e iicat must be produced in 

 the interior of the animal — in other words, more 

 frequent respiration must take place, in order to 

 make up for the greater loss of heat by exposure 

 to the external air. 



Thus, as was stated at the commencement of the 

 present chapter, a study of the nature and func- 

 tions of the food of animals throws additional light 



* At Port Pliilip, in the boiling-houses, a Merino shcop df 55 

 lbs. gives 20 ll)s. of tallow, and of all weight above 53 lbs. four- 

 fifths are tallow. 



upon the nature also and final uses of the food of 

 plants. It even teaches us what to look for in 

 the soil — what a fertile soil must contain that it 

 may grow nourishing food — what we must add to 

 the soil when chemical analysis fails to detect 

 its actual presence, or when the food it produee8 

 is unable t) supply all that the animal requires. 



SPECIAL WASTE IX THE PERSPIRATION OF ANIMALS, 

 AND IMPORTANCE OF THIS FUNCTION. 



Animals perspire that they may live, and this 

 function is as necessary to a healthy life as cither 

 breathing or digestion. The skin, like the lungs, 

 gives off carbonic acid and absorl)s oxygen. But 

 it differs from the lungs in giving off a much lar- 

 ger bulk of the ibrmer gas than it absorbs of the 

 latter. The quantity of carbonic acid which es- 

 capes varies with circumstances. It is sometimes 

 equal to a thirtieth, and sometimes amounts only 

 to a ninetieth part of that which is thrown off 

 from the lungs. But exercise and hard labor in- 

 crease the evolution of carbon from the skin, as it 

 does from the lungs. In motion, the human body 

 gives off nearly three times as much as y/hen it is 

 at rest ; while from a horse, when put to the trot, 

 the car):onic acid of the skin augments as much as 

 an hundred and seventy times. (Gerlach.) 



Water is also given off from the skin as from 

 the lungs, and every one knows that fat exudes 

 from its pores and lubricates the surface of the 

 body. The salt taste of the perspiration is an 

 equally familiar proof that a portion, at least, of 

 the s.vline matter derived from the waste and 

 change of materials in the b nly escapes through 

 this channel. 



Nirtogen also escapes from theskin. The quan- 

 tity of nitrogen in the food is a third or a fourth 

 greater than tliat contained in the .'-\)lid and liquid 

 excretions. (Barral.) This tliird or fourth, 

 therefore, is supposed to be given off by the organs 

 of perspiration, tlie lungs and theskin. A cow 

 or a horse is reckoned to exhale by the skin and 

 lungs about 400 grains of nitrogen daily ; a man, 

 perhaps, 100 ; and a sheep or pig 8 grains. 



(BOUSSINGAULT.) 



The functions of the skin, therefore, are very 

 important ; and thus, in the practical feeding of 

 animals, a healthy and clean condition of theskin 

 must contri!)ute not only to healthy growth, but 

 to a profitable employment of vegetable produce 

 in rearing, maintaining, and fattening them. 



Johnston^ s Ag. Chemistry and Geology. 



Tn' Ihr. New Ens^lund Farmer. 



HORSERADISH. 



Mr. Editor : — I saw an inquiry in your paper 

 in relation to the cultivatiun of horseradish, and 

 can tell the inquirer how it ought to be done, 

 lake a piece of moist meadow land and ridge it up 

 in ridges three feet apart, one way ; then take 

 horseradish roots, from one-fourth to three-iburtha 

 of an inch in diameter, and cut them into pieces 

 one inch in length, and plant one piece in a place, 

 two feet apart on the top of tlie ridge, covering 

 them about an inch deep, and cultivate aa 

 you do for potatoes. After the severe frosts in the 

 fall, pull the roots and keep off the small fibres, 

 and pack the remainder closely in the cellar and 

 cover with turf to prevent the roots from drying. 

 Worcester, 1854. B. H. Franklin. 



