60 ANALOGY BETWEEN ANIMAL 



and the leaves convert it into vegetable blood. In the 

 processes of germination and of incubation, light must be 

 excluded. 



The elementary matters found in animals and vegetables 

 are rarely the same — the animal contains the most nitro- 

 gen, the vegetable the most carbon. Lime and iron are 

 found in both. 



In the vegetable, as in the animal, the power exists of 

 throwing off, through their excretory organs, matters, 

 blended with their food, not fitted to their wants, or not 

 assimilating with the elements of their structure. Plants 

 often exhale, or give off, like some animals, a strong 

 odor. 



Thus it will be seen, that plants, like animals, are or- 

 ganized beings, fed and fattened, like animals, upon vege- 

 table and animal — upon organic matters ; and that the 

 same care, industry, and intelligence are required, at 

 the hands of the farmer, to grow good crops, that are re- 

 quired, in him, to make good mutton or good pork. The 

 importance of providing well for the vegetable is greater 

 than that of providing for the animal ; for, while the ani- 

 mal has locomotive power, and can go abroad for food — 

 the vegetable is stationary, and can only send abroad its 

 roots for food — and where this is deficient it must be sup- 

 plied by art. Besides, feeding the vegetable well, is the 

 true way of providing economically for the animal. For 

 if the crops are good, the means of rendering the animal 

 good are always at command. The animal manufactures 

 the crops into meat, milk, and manure — virtually into 

 money. But if the crops are bad or deficient, an outlay 

 must be made for cattle-food, which will reduce, if not 

 eat up, the profits, or the farmer w^ill be correspondingly 

 deficient in the raw material which he should turn into 

 money. These considerations cannot fail of impressing 

 upon the mind of the farmer the importance of keeping 

 up and of increasing, by all prudent means, the fertility 

 of his soil. 



In the management of cattle, no decent farmer would 

 think o^ fattening a score of animals upon the food that 

 would barely serve to keep them in a lean condition. If 



