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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



NOV, 30, IJ 



'APPROPRIATE FOOD, PURE AIR, AND! 

 EXERCISE, NECESSARY TO THE HEAL- 

 THY CONDITION OP DAIRY CATTLE. 

 That the natural temperalure of food for niniinant 

 animals is the most appropriate, appears too plain 

 a proposition to be disputed; but in the general 

 management of cows in the vicinity of populous 

 places, thi? important fact is entiiely disregarded. 

 Man, it is true, is omnivorous. Ills stomach is 

 nearly equally well adapted to the digestion of ani- 

 mal or vegetable food, of solids or fluids. He is 

 also a cooking animal, and can receive his food at 

 varying temperatures. But it is different witti ru- 

 minant animals. They are essentially herbivorous, 

 and should receive this kind of aliment, at a natu- 

 ral temperature, before it has undergone certain 

 chemical changes, and not, as is the case in the 

 form of slop, reeking hot from the distillery. Their 

 immense complex concocting organs must have 

 eomething else to employ them besides receiving 

 some thirty or forty gallons of slush per day, which 

 contains but a small quantity of vegetable matter 

 in the form of bran disseminated through it. To 

 fulfil the obvious design of nature, they must have 

 food which requires mastication. Without the 

 power of rumination, or in familiar phrase, without 

 a cud, they will languish and die. Hence a little 

 grass or hay cannot be dispensed with. But a lit- 

 tle is not enough. They must have solid food in 

 sufficient quantity to fill their stomachs. The cow 

 that is fed on distillery-slop, so far as we know, 

 uses but one of her four stomachs ; all the rest are 

 idle; of course, there must follow great functional 

 derangement. And when this kind of diet is re- 

 ceived into the system, it is rapidly sucked up by 

 the thousand absorbent vessels, and thrown into 

 the blood ; and before it becomes animalized, pro- 

 bably in the course often minutes, it begins to be 

 strained through the organs of the udder, in the 

 form of a blue, watery, insipid secretion, called 

 milk. 



How very different is the process of forming 

 milk out of solid food ! By the complicated appa- 

 ratus already dsscribod, the food undergoes various 

 modifications and changes. First, it is partially 

 chewed and mixed with the saliva ; it then de- 

 scends into the rumen, where it gradually traverses 

 its various compartments, and is probably retained 

 several hours, until it is thoroughly macerated; 

 next it is passed into the reticulum in small por- 

 tions, and there being softened and covered with 

 mucus, by a kind of anti-peristaltic action ' it is 

 thrown into the mouth. Here, " by a compound 

 motion of the lower jaw, half lateral and half ver- 

 tical," leisurely repeated from thirty to forty times, 

 on each cud or pellet, the second process of masti- 

 cation is completed; and being reduced to a proper 

 consistence, it is again swallowed, and glides di- 

 rectly into tlio omasum, where it sustains some 

 changes not well understood. It ne.tt passes into 

 the abomasum, or last stomach, where it is mixed 

 with certain fluids equivalent to the gastric juice in 

 the human stomach, and thus is converted into a 

 soft pulpy mass called chyme, from which the small 

 vessels of a portion of the digestive tube, still low- 

 er down, called lacteals, by a peculiar power which 

 may be denominated vital chemistry, manufacture 

 that bland fluid, chyle, which contains in itself all 

 the ultimate elements of animal bodies. This, 

 "'icn, is an elaborated animalized product, containing 

 -J -bundance of oxygen and carbon, with some ni- 



- ^ I. and fitted for conversion into albumen, gela- 



it ogeoi or any of the proximate elements of ani- 



mal bodies. The blood formed from it is conse- 

 quently rich in all the elements which are required 

 to supply the wastes, and build up the various tis- 

 sues of the system. Of course, the milk secreted 

 from it is highly animalized, and essentially a vital 

 product ; and its separation from the blood is not a 

 mere mechanical straining off", from vessels distend- 

 ed with an unnatural quantity of watery fluid, as 

 when the animal is gorged with di^tjllery-slop. 



In cows thus fed, it is highly p'obable there is 

 very little if any chyle formed; in fact, there is 

 very little if any appropriate matter to make it out 

 of. It is known that the food of animals must ne- 

 cessarily consist of one of the three great staminal 

 principles, a saccharine, an oih/, or an albuminous 

 principle. Thus gramineous and herbaceous mat- 

 ters, on which ruminants feed, contain two of these, 

 viz : the saccharine and the glutinous, which is a 

 modification of the albuminous, while every part of 

 an animal contains albumen and oil. But how 

 much saccharine matter can it be supposed is left 

 in the slop of the distillery or in brewers' grains, 

 after, by the process of fermentation, all the alco- 

 hol that can be obtained is extracted from it ? Spi- 

 rit, or alcohol, is the direct product of the saccha.- 

 rino portion of the grains ; and as it is rapidly de- 

 veloped by fermentation, it is hardly probable that 

 any remains behind undeeomptised. As gluten is 

 insoluble in water, and does not so readily ferment 

 as the saccharine principle, it is probable that 

 brewers' grains contain a considerable quantity of 

 it. Indeed it may be said to contain the only nu- 

 tritious principle that can he obtained from them. 

 It is fully established by the experiments of Majen- 

 die and other physiologists, that a diet to be com- 

 plete, must contain more or less of these three stam- 

 ina! principles. Such at least must be the diet of 

 man. Although animals may form a chyle, and 

 even live a while on one of these classes of ali- 

 ments, yet it is impossible that they can do so for 

 a great length of time. No proper chyle can be 

 obtained from the digestion of such food; conse- 

 quently no healthy blood can be formed, and none 

 of the secretions be healthy. This, then, is anoth- 

 er important reason why the health of cows cannot 

 be maintained on distillery-slop and similar kinds 

 of food. 



Healthy chyle is so similar in its properties to 

 blood, that it has been called liquid blond; and 

 Vanquelin, a celebrated chemist, even regards it 

 asjibrin in an imperfect state. But when the food, 

 as is the case with distillery-slop, is of such a na- 

 ture that proper chyle cannot be formed from it, 

 we would naturally expect, when used and taken 

 up by the absorbents, that the entire system would 

 be filled with the watery and innutritious fluid, and 

 such, as will subsequently appear, is the actual con- 

 dition of animals so fed. Such food contains no 

 carbon, which Constitutes the greater proportion of 

 fibrin, or muscular fibre ; of course no fibre or flesh 

 could be formed, for the very good reason that 

 there is nothing present to furnish the materials 

 essential to its formation. In view of these tacts, 

 though uninstructed by experience, as to the actual 

 results, we might confidently anticipate the dele- 

 terious etfects which are known to take place, and 

 must ever be consequent upon the use of unwhole- 

 some and insufiicient food. 



But there are other conditions which are essen- 

 tial to the health of these animals, which may be 

 concisely noticed. 



First, Pure air is indispensably necessary. Any 

 other conclusion than this, would be as contrary to 



the known laws of life and health, as to the c 

 mon sense of mankind. The effects of livin 

 foul air, are manifested by the debility which 

 sues — impaired digestion, depression of the ■ 

 functions, and oftentimes the generation of dise 

 of the most malignant and fatal character. ! 

 as air is rendered impure by r.very thing Wl 

 impedes its circulation, but especially by the bf 

 and perspiration of animals crowded togethl 

 small and close apartments ; the presence of ex 

 ments and stench, and putrifying animal and » 

 table matter, which, even with the strictest re| 

 to cleanliness, unavoidably accumulates by in 

 ring them in confined stables, such a conditioi 

 the absence of all other prejudicial causes, ca 

 .•ail to prove destructive to health anrl life. 



Second, Exercise. It is as evidently the dei 

 of nature that cattle should enjoy that bodilj 

 tivity which is produced by the natural actlt 

 their own limbs, in moving from place to place 

 the means of subsistence, as it is that vegetl 

 be left undisturbed in the soil from which Ihej 

 bibe their nourishment. Cattle were necess 

 endued with powers of locomotion in order to 

 their own subsistence ; and it is self-evident 

 they cannot be condemned to a torpid veget 

 condition with impunity. 



Nature, ever unnerring in her instincts, pro 

 the bounding frolics of young animals, as we 

 the more clumsy gambols of the old. "T 

 must," remarks Addison, " be frequent motiona 

 tations, to mix, digest, and separate the juices 

 tained in the body, as well to clear and ck 

 that infinitude of pipes and strainers of which 

 composed, as to give their solid part a more 

 and lasting tone. Exercise ferments the hui 

 casts them into their proper channels, thro» 

 redundances, and helps nature in those secret 

 tributions, without which the body cannot si 

 in vigor." And in order to this healthy acti 

 the vital functions, it is not suflicient that 

 cise be taken occasionally and at long intc 

 but, when the season permits, it should be 

 daily. Common sense and observation, ind 

 dent of physiological knowledge, might lead i 

 the conclusion, that any other management of 

 tie than that here suggested, must lead to thi 

 rangement of health, and latal diseases. — Hai 

 Essay on Milk. 



Preservation of Health An ancient philol 



once said, "If you find it necessary to hav' 

 course to medicines, there are three ivhic! 

 may make use of with safety, viz: a tranquil 

 moderate exercise, and temperate diet."' 



The celebrated French physician, Dumoul 

 his death-bed, when surrounded by the most d 

 guished physicians of Paris, who regretted ihi 

 which the profession would sustain in his i 

 said, "My friends, I leave behind me three | 

 cians much greater than myself." Being pt 

 to name them, each of the doctors supposing 

 self to be one of the three, he answered, ' 

 Eiercise, and Diet." — Selected. 



Improvement in Making Candles Some oP' , 



that by making the wicks of candles about ha^ 



common size, and then wetting them with ipil 

 turpentine and drying them in the sunshine 1 

 moulding or dipping, they will last longei 

 make clearer light than when made in the on 

 way. 



