AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NOllTH MARKET STREET, (Aorichltoral Wabbhoubb.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 2'^, 1843. 



N. E. FARMER. 



From the London Gardener's Chronicle. 



GRAZING AND FATTENING CATTLE. 

 ■. Plajlfair's Second Lecture he/ore the Royal Ag- 

 ricultural Society. 

 Dr. Playfnir, in commencing his second lecture 

 ilcd thai in the last lecture lie had examined the 

 tiire of the food of animals; in this evening's 

 itiire, the process of growth and fattening in ani- 

 ils, would be more particularly considered. 

 The health of an animnl depends on the supply 

 nutriment being equal to the waste that is going 

 in the bodv. Healthy adult animals weigh as 

 icli at the end as at the beginning of the year, 

 d this depended on their having had enough food 

 supply the waste going on in the system. In 

 jng and growing animals it is somewhat diffe- 

 iit; they require more supply than there is waste, 

 ;au3e their bodies are constantly increasing in 

 p. When animals are first born, the functions 

 orgnnic life are chiefly performed. Respira- 

 is at this time more active than in the adult, 

 trition is also more active. The food that na- 

 supplies nnimals with at this period of their 

 is well adnpted to assist those functions. In 

 milk of animals is found nitrogenized matter 

 developing the system, and carbonized matter 

 supplying animal heat. The following is an 

 lysis of the milk of « woman, a cow, and an 

 made by Dr. Playfair : 



Wom:in. Cow. Ass. 



Casein, 1..5 4.0 1.9 



Butter, 4.4 4.6 1.3 



Sugar, 5.7 3.8 C.3 



Ashes, 0.5 0.0 _ 



Water, 88.0 80.0 90.5 



^he casein is the nitrogenized principle which 

 rds nutriment to the muscular and other tissues. 

 3 is in greatest quantity in the cow. The but- 

 ind sugar are the combustible materials, wliich 

 heir combustion supply heat to the body. The 

 :9 consist of phosphate of lime and common 

 , both of which materials are necessary for the 

 thy function of the body. Thus, in milk we 

 ; all that is necessary for the growth of the 

 /, and it is the type and representative of all 

 ; for unless food contain the principles of 

 ;, it is not fitted for the purposes of the body. 

 ?ln is the principle of cheese. In its ordinary 

 !, as made for the food of man, cheese contains 

 casein and butter. The stomachs of young 

 lals are not adapted for separating the nitroge- 

 i principles from food, and the casein of milk 

 ipplied to Iheni ready separated. 

 1 the yonng ruminant, as the calf, the three 

 stomachs into which the food of the adult ani- 

 enter before it is digested, are not used at 

 The milk passes at once into the fourlli sto- 

 li. Hence the necessity of weaning these ani- 

 1 gradually, in order that their stomachs may 

 ully able to prepare the raw food for digestion, 

 food fur weaning children, also, should be pre- 



pared on the model of milk, changing the relations 

 of the nitrogenized to the carbonaceous materials 

 only as circumstances require. In the milk of the 

 cow, the carbonized materials are as two to one, 

 but in the food of adult animals they are as six to 

 one. The large quantity of casein in milk is re- 

 quired for the rapid developement of the body ; 

 the butter, a highly carbonized material, is requir- 

 ed for supporting a large amount of animal licat. 

 It is, consequently, a bad thing to feed calves on 

 skim milk, as the butter and casein have been re- 

 moved, in tlio shape of cream. Earl Spencer, who 

 is verv successful in weaning his calves, feeds 

 them first with new milk, then with skim milk and 

 meal — the meal supplying the necessary azotised 

 and unazotised materials — (azote and azotised are 

 synonymous terms with nitrogen and nitrogenised.) 

 In feeding young animals, as well as young child- 

 ren, they should have good food, and there should 

 be no stinting them as to <)uaniily. That farmer 

 will lose in the end, who thinks to save hi:: milk 

 by stinting his calves. 



Artificial food is sometimes made, and used as a 

 subslilule for milk. The Duke of Northumber- 

 land employs a mixture of treacle and oil-cake, 

 bruised flax and hay. The fruit of LeguminosiE 

 contains casein ; hence we may infer that peas and 

 beans would be good food for calves. The diffe- 

 rence between casein and albunien i.s, that the for- 

 mer is much more soluble than the latter, and proba- 

 bly on that account more adapted for young ani- 

 mals. Beans and peas are known to be good 

 things for growing pigs, whilst barley meal is good 

 for fattening them. In the growth of young ani- 

 mals, as well as the fattening of adult ones, all ex- 

 posure to cold, should be as much as possible 

 avoided. Cold diminishes the vitality of the body, 

 and whatever diminishes vitality, gives a prepon- 

 derance to chemical action in the body, and injury 

 of some kind is the result. 



Exercise is also necessary for the rearing of 

 young animals, although it should be avoided in 

 fattening. In order to develope the calf and the 

 lamb, they should be allowed plenty of exercise ; 

 but in fattening, another object is to be gained. 

 All motion consumes something in the body, there- 

 fore motion is so much loss of material in the fat- 

 tening an animal. In the same manner, exposure 

 to cold, as w'as proved by the experiments repeated 

 in the last lecture, was a positive loss in the fat- 

 tening of animals. Stall feeding is beneficial, 

 both on account of warmth and quietude. The 

 primary cause of all this waste is the supply of 

 oxygen ; whatever increases the supply of oxygen, 

 increases the waste of the body, and the necessity 

 for supply. Fatting animals are often kept in the 

 dark. Darkness favors sleep, and sleep quietude. 

 It was thus that darkness was favorable to fatten- 

 ing. A case was related of a pig ihat was placed 

 in a box in the dark, and the sides stuck full of 

 pins, to prevent the animal moving in any manner, 

 and the animal quickly got fat. The fattening of 

 ortolans, in Italy, illustrated this point. The orto- 

 lan is a bird that takes its food at dawn of day, and 

 the breeders of these birds take advantage of this. 



and shutting them up in a dark room, they contrive 

 to let in the light four or five limes a day, and to 

 supply the birds with plenty of food. The birds, 

 at every admission of light, thinking the lime is 

 come to eat, take their usual quantity of food, and 

 on the light being withdrawn, they fall asleep, and 

 in this manner they rapidly get very fat. Sleepy, 

 good-natured pigs, fallen fast ; but active pigs, as 

 the Irish, never get fat at all. 



A question may still arise as to whether it ii 

 better to feed animals in stables or small yards. 

 The manure of the latter is staled to bo better, 

 and there is no doubt of this ; but then the gain of 

 the manure is lost in the fattening of the animal. 

 Manures will also vary in value, according to the 

 food animals take. The manure furnished from 

 cattle eating turnips, was nothing like the value of 

 the manure furnished by cattle eating linseed cake. 



Feeding cows for the dairy, was a subject worthy 

 great attention. In the first place, it seemed ne- 

 cessary to supply cows with faod containing potas- 

 sa. Potassa converted albumen into casein — that 

 is, it made it soluble — and soluble albumen is cas- 

 ein, and casein is the n'ost important constituent 

 of milk. It might be a question as to whether ca- 

 sein was introduced directly into the blood from the 

 food, or whether it might not be the result of the 

 destruction of the already formed tissues. Ani- 

 mals fed in the open air, gave inilk with more ca- 

 sein than animals fed in close places. The lectu- 

 rer said he had found more casein in the milk 

 given in the evening after the cows were out 

 all day, than in milk given in the morning after the 

 cows had been standing all night. The tissues 

 are consumed by exercise, and thus yield the ca- 

 sein. 



Parturition makes a great demand on the powers 

 of the system, and Bracconol found that the milk 

 of a cow directly after calving, contained 15 per 

 cent, of casein — a much larger proportion than or- 

 dinary. The alkalies, set free by motion, convert 

 the albumen into casein. The butter in milk is 

 not introduced, as Dumas asserts, with the food. 

 It is formed from the starch that exists in the food. 

 The only change necessary to convert starch into 

 fat,' is the abstraction of oxygen. The sugar of 

 milk is a peculiar compound : it consists of starch, 

 with two proportions of water. The state of the 

 mind affects the secretion of rnilk. In woman, 

 anger, sorrow, and anxiety, affect their milk so 

 much, that children sufiiir very much, or even die, 

 from the effects of partaking of it. For the same 

 reasons, cows should be kept free from all kinds of 

 irritation. When at a distance, they should be al- 

 lowed to walk to the milking place at their own 

 pace, and never be driven. Exercise is bad for 

 the butter. Where much exercise is allowed, the 

 produce of butter is small ; this arises from the 

 oxygen consuming the carbonaceous material that 

 would otherwise be secreted in the milk in the 

 form of butler. In summer, flies torment cows in 

 the day, and they do not yield so much butter. 

 This may be remedied by sending the cows into 

 the field at night, and keeping them at home in 

 the dny ; but this must only be done in summer as 



