298 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MARCH aa, IS 13 



it would be a bad system during cold nights. Stnll 

 fed cows produce most butter; and where butter 

 is the object, c^nvs should be turned into the rich- 

 est pastures. With regard to the pastures for pro- 

 ducing casein, or cheese, there is a very general 

 impression that poor land is best adapted for pro- 

 ducing cheese. In general, in cheese di.stricts the 

 the pastures are poor. It is, perhaps, the exercise 

 which the animals take on poor land, in order to 

 obtain fcjod, that (for reasons before staled,) devel- 

 ops the casein in the milk. Stall-fed cows yield 

 much less casein than those fed in pastures. Cows 

 that are required to yield cheese, should not bo 

 kept poor, but it is desirable that they should have 

 to travel some way for their food. 



Some foods that animals eat, flavor their milk, 

 as Swedish turnips ; — buttercups color it. Many 

 plants may affect cows when taken with their food. 

 The lecturer, a short time since, was in company 

 with Dr. Daubeney and Dr. Buckland, in Somerset- 

 shire, where they met with a farmer, who staled, as 

 a singular fact, that he had two pastures, the one 

 of which, when he turned his cows in, they be- 

 came purged ; and the other, when he turned them 

 in, produced constipation. The farmer could not 

 account for this ; but Dr. Daubeney, on examining 

 the fields, found that the one which purged the 

 cows, contained a large quantity of purging fla,\ 

 (Linum Cdlharlicumj with the grass ; whilst the 

 other contained an equal abundance of the com- 

 mon tormentil, or septfoil, (Potenlilta lormcniiUa.) 

 a very astringent plant, which at once accounted 

 for their peculiar action. In Scotland, they pro- 

 cure good milk from stall fed cows, by feeding 

 them upon malt refuse, and bean and pea meal, and 

 giving them beer to drink. The malt refuse sup- 

 plies the materials for butter and sugar, the beans 

 and peas the casein, wliilst the beer keeps up the 

 animal heat. Water would carry off the heat, be- 

 sides acting injuriously by disaolving the blood 

 globules. 



The principles of chemistry will also enable us 

 to assign the causes, and in some measure to pre- 

 vent the occurrence, of diseases among cattle. 

 What is called consumption, rot, foot rot, &c. in 

 cattle, arises from a slow combustion or destruc- 

 tion of their tissues, by the agency of oxygen. 

 The same process goes on in vegetables ; and it is 

 well known that this process can be communicated 

 from one vegetable to another, as from an apple to 

 an orange, &o., and decaying vegetable matter 

 will communicate this process to an animal. These 

 diseases always occur amongst animals closely 

 kept, where there is much decaying vegetable mat- 

 ter about. Animals exposed to drafts do not take 

 these diseases : the draft carries off the decaying 

 ferment. Wiien this process is established in the 

 intestines, it produces diarrlima, and this probably 

 arises from animals consuming bad food, lied 

 water and black water, arise from the same disease 

 extending to the kidneys. Rot in the feet, comes 

 on from the same cause. It always occurs at that 

 season of the year when vegetable decomposition 

 is greatest, and occurs to the greatest extent where 

 animals are obliged to tread on decaying vegetable 

 matter. The treatment of these diseases should 

 be by anti-putrescent niBterials, such as chlorine 

 and the empyreumatic oils, &c. These will disin- 

 fect the stalls or sheds where animals are kept. 



Dr. Playfair then stated that he had a few obser- 

 vations to make on the character of the internal 

 and external structure of the organs of animals, in 

 order to arrive at a knowledge of them as indica- 



tions of their capacity for fattening and reaching 

 an early maturity. Tliese observations he wished 

 to be put to the test of experiment, as he was a ware 

 that some of them were opposed to generally re- 

 ceived views. 



First, with regard to internal structure, which 

 was the most im[)ortant. It was generally consi- 

 dered that animals with large chests fattened best, 

 and it was supposed that all animals with broad 

 round chests, had large luTigs. But this is not the 

 case. Sheep have round chests and small lungs. 

 I Horses have narrow chests and large lungs. South 

 I Down sheep have narrower chesLs than Leicester 

 sheep, yet they have the largest lungs. The Lei- 

 ! cester sheep are known to fatten soonest. He 

 I spoke here of the aboriginal breeds of these ani- 

 I mals. He had asked butchers, and thoy were unan- 

 imously of opinion that the fattest cattle had small 

 j lungs and small livers. Now this was a necessary 

 consequence of the preceding principles. Where 

 most oxygen was taken into the system, there 

 would there be the greatest destruction of carbon, 

 and consequently less carbonaceous material de- 

 posited in the form of fat. If two pigs had the 

 same quantity of food, and one had lungs of double 

 the capacity of the other, that l)ig would only ap- 

 propriate half as much of its food in the form of 

 fat. Milk with much butter in it, was known to 

 be produced by cows with s:nall lungs. The same 

 held good with regard to the liver; where there 

 was a large liver, there would bo a large secretion 

 of bile, and a large destruction of carbonaceous 

 matter. If two animals ate 60 lbs. of food, and 

 one secreted 37 lbs. of bile, and the other only 30 

 lbs., the food that was not formed into bile would 

 be converted into fat; hence the gain on the ani- 

 mal with a small liver. 



With regard to external signs, small bones indi- 

 cated a delicacy of constitution, smallness of lungs 

 and liver, and a tendency to fatten rapidly ; whilst 

 large bones indicated just the contrary. The 

 ''mellow" feel of an animal, (considered of so 

 much importance by good judges of stock,) depend- 

 ed en the resiliency (springing back) of the cellu- 

 lar tissue of the animal — the tissue in which the 

 fat is deposited. When there is much mellowness, 

 it arises from the blood being easily pressed from 

 one part of the cellular tissue to another, and indi- 

 cates a susceptibility to fattening. The reason 

 why animals get more rapidly fat at the end of 

 their feeding season is, that the fat accumulating 

 in the abdomen, presses upon the diaphragm and 

 abdominal muscle.s, and thus prevents the more 

 complete action of the lungs, and consequently the 

 destruction of the carbonaceous material, by the 

 inhalation of oxygen. The fat also prevents the 

 oxygen being absorbed by the skin, and diminish- 

 es by its pressure, the capacity also of the liver, 

 and thus also adds to the fattening process. Large 

 ears indicate a general coarseness of heme and 

 muscle, and the same condition of lungs and liver, 

 and are thus indicative of a small capacity for fat- 

 tening. There were other indications which might 

 be referred to, but the lecturer hoped these hints 

 would be sufficient to set inquiry afloat on a very 

 important subject. He apologized for what he 

 considered the incomplete evidence he had brought 

 forward to establish some of his views, but stated 

 he had experiments in progress, which he hoped 

 would throw more light on many of the more ob- 

 scure points to which he had alluded. 



Lord Spencer proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. 

 Playfair, fir his lectures, and staled how much 



gratified he had been in listening to them. H( 

 hoped agric\i!turists would see from these lecturei 

 the great benefit likely to accrue to them from s 

 knowledge of the principles of the science of physi. 

 ology and chemistry. Mr Pusey, M. P., secondec 

 the motion. Dr. Playfair, in returning thanks 

 stated that he had drawn up a series of statistica 

 tables for circulation amongst butchers, for thi 

 purpose of gaining information on the interna 

 structure of the animals which they slautrhtered i 



For the New England Fanner. 



FATTE.^IING CATTLE. 



Mr Editor — In my late communication 

 "Feeding Herbivorous Animals with Oil," 1 ha. 

 two or three points in view; and therefore failed 

 as I have sometimes done before, of making tnysel 

 intelligible, or at least instructive, in regard to anj 



First, I spoke against the use of oil in feedin 

 herbivorous animals. But by this I did not mea 

 to object to the use, in any instance, of substance 

 which contain oil ; for it is quite possible that too 

 containing a small quantity of o\\, in Iht form i 

 oil, may bo perfectly healthy, both for man and th 

 herbivora. But if so, the oil must be mixed wil 

 the farina and other elementary substances, in n; 

 ture's own way, and not in ours. Admitting thi 

 corn and flaxseed are proper articles for our cattl 

 it does not follow that the oil of either of the! 

 substances, when separated and mixed with hay i 

 straw, or bran, or any thing else, is so. Yoi 

 readers know as well as I, that no art can in tli 

 respect, exactly, or indeed nearly, imitate nalur 



I will not, however, conceal my doubts in regai 

 to the healthfulness of any substances, either I 

 man or herbivorous animals, which contain oil 

 an uncombined state. And these doubts al.va* 

 increase when I find the men and ^^animals that u 

 them viost in this way, to be most subject to disea; 

 and as a race or breed, to dtleriorate most. T 

 more exclusively horse.s, oxen, cows, sheep, & 

 are fed on grcss, hay, straw, and perhaps roots a 

 fruits, the better their health, and the health 

 their posterity, so far as I have observed. T 

 horse, it is true, may not In this way be so w 

 able to compete for speed, for a few years, w 

 the steamboat or railroad car; but he will enj 

 life in a higher degree, will live much longer, a 

 in the aggregate be quite as useful. "No chri: 

 inn will ever drive his horse faster than a nalu 

 walk," said a skeptic to me one day ; at the sai 

 time observing that he had just walked his hoi 

 all the way from Cincinnati to Hartford county, ( 

 Cows, too, may give more milk for using unnatu 

 food ; but this does not prove that it is health. 

 for the individual or the race. 



But what I object to most, in the second pla| 

 is the custom of fattening animals for human fof 

 Wild animals — fish, fowls, quadrupeds, &c., t 

 one thing ; domesticated ones, quite another. I - 

 not believe it can be shown, by any fair procea 

 reasoning, that human health or longevity has 

 promoted by the custom of using the llesh ori 

 products of animals artificially treated, or fed 

 food which is not natural to them. If it is ai 

 how we are to know that a given kind of food 

 not natural to an animal, I reply, that if we cam 

 always deter/nine this « priorior from analog;}), 

 may often do it by experience. Fattening, 

 general fact, in man or beast, is a diseased pro^a 

 Whatever fattens, therefore, produces disease, a 



Iwi.td ; 



