THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 137 



decided advantage. Animals should never be watered imme- 

 diately before, nor after, meals, but after the lapse of an hour 

 from feeding time is the best. 



AS REGARDS THE QUANTITY OF FOOD REQUIRED. 



The adult animal does not require so much of the flesh- 

 making principle as the young and growing, but he seems to 

 require a greater variety. The adult merely requires enough 

 to replace the waste — the wear and tear of his system. If he 

 obtains more than this, the surplus is either excreted from the 

 body, or else stored up within the same in the form of fat ; and 

 everybody knows that a fat horse or 2, fat man, are not best 

 adapted for a race, nor hard labor ; but of all others (except 

 those in a state of debility), they are most subject to acute dis- 

 ease. With the young and growing animal the case is different. 

 Here we require bone, muscle, and nerve. Oats, corn, and pol- 

 lard furnish the same. The colt and calf obtain from their 

 mother's milk all the elements of their own organization in a 

 concentrated form — all that seems necessary for developing 

 bodily proportions and hereditary traits ; therefore, when 

 weaned, the young must be furnished with the same equiva- 

 lents in the form of fodder ; ground oats, wheat bran, and meal 

 furnish the same. 



It is the young and growing animal that requires our greatest 

 attention. If my readers desire to raise animals that shall re- 

 munerate them for the trouble and expense incurred, they must 

 feed the same, during their minority, with a liberal hand. Any 

 neglect at this period can never be made up in after life ; the 

 subject will always remain lank and lean, — living monuments 

 of their master's folly or ignorance, as the case may be. In 

 addition to the food required for the calfs growth, we must also 

 furnish enough to supply the waste ipcurred by expenditure of 

 muscular power. We all know that the young are very active 

 and playful. Every muscular movement involves an expendi- 

 ture of vital force, and thus exhausts the system ; therefore, in 

 yiew of developing their full proportions, and promoting the 

 12* 



