128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



account of its importance as another means of supplying 

 crowded communities with food ; and the kind of food which is 

 derived from fish is one of peculiar value. Although it is not 

 everywhere estimated at its full importance, there can be no 

 doubt that as an article of food fish has a physiological signifi- 

 cance which cannot be overrated. All living beings grow and 

 supply their waste by appropriating from outside, in various 

 ways, the means of sustenance ; and that food is the food 

 adapted to their nature. Cattle feed on grass, and they have 

 been so organized, that out of grass they build that frame which 

 has so many valuable uses for ourselves. They make meat out 

 of grass ; they make milk out of grass ; they make hides out of 

 grass ; and if they can do that, it is owing to the fact that their 

 structure is adapted to the transformation of such kinds of food 

 as they eat into those substances which constitute their frame, 

 and those fluids which are secreted by their organs. Every 

 kind of animal has a peculiar kind of food, and knows how to 

 choose it by instinct, and all fare well in proportion as they find 

 a sufficient supply of that food which is best adapted to their 

 constitution and organization. Man lives in a manner similar 

 to these kindred living beings on earth, by appropriating food 

 also ; and he must take that food which will make him a full 

 man, if he would have all those attributes which characterize 

 mankind. All those individuals who, from fancy or for any 

 other reason, live exclusively on some particular article of food, 

 deteriorate their natures, deprive themselves of some of their 

 power ; and it is only when man finds and appropriates to him- 

 self that food which will secure his normal growth, and will 

 repair all the waste resulting from the exertion of his faculties, 

 that he maintains himself in the proper condition. 



If there is any one thing which characterizes civilized man, 

 it is his intellectual activity. There is nothing which is taxed 

 so much in a civilized community as the brain, and the brain 

 must be fed ; and it requires a kind of food which is not to be 

 supplied by every article of diet. Chemists will tell you, that, 

 in order to the performance of the highest functions of the hu- 

 man brain, there should be a certain amount of phosphates 

 introduced into the system ; that the phosphates which you use 

 for manure, and as a means of improving your agricultural 

 products, in another form, are a necessary article of food for 



