WORCESTER SOCIETY. 185 



140 gallons pure water, . . . |0 00 

 1 man at $8 per month, . . . 31 . 

 Board of man, at $1 50 per week, . 23 



$7 39 per day. 



Balance in favor of straw cutter, . . ^2 86 " " 



" In addition to the above balance may be added an increase 

 of six gallons of milk from twenty-five cows then in milk, and 

 likewise something for the improvement of the condition of 



my whole stock. 



Yours respectfully, 



Amos Sheldon." 



In a communication of Finlay Dun, Jr., of Scotland, to the 

 Highland Society of Scotland, for which he i-eceived a gold 

 medal, he says in relation to the quantity of food to be given 

 to cattle : " It is found from experience that a healthy ox con- 

 sumes nearly one-fifth its own weight of hay, straw, and such 

 other dried food. Cattle, fifty stone imperial weight, allowed 

 straw, ad libitum, will consume from 150 to 180 lbs. of turnips 

 daily." Boussingault considers as a sufficient allowance six 

 pounds of mixed food or four pounds of hay for every 100 lbs. 

 of living weight ; or otherwise, about thirty pounds per day of 

 a mixture of equal parts of grass and hay for cattle of thirty 

 stone imperial weight. The food of cattle requires to be of a 

 certain bulk. Without this, digestion and assimilation are not 

 properly performed, even although the food be sufficiently nu- 

 tritive. In order that digestion be effectually performed, the 

 stomach must have certain mechanical stimulus, which the 

 bulk of the food naturally imparts to it. But the quantity of 

 food necessary to an ox must of course be greatly modified by 

 various circumstances. It is evident, for instance, that young 

 animals, in proportion to their size, require a larger quantity 

 and a better sort of nutriment than adults. This depends 

 upon their having to increase the size of all the parts of their 

 frame, as well as to repair the continual waste, which is also 

 greater in them, than in older animals, on account of their 

 taking a greater amount of exercise. 



" At all ages exercise greatly increases the demand for food 

 and prevents the accumulation of fat. A man, when employ- 

 ed in active out-door labor, requires a much more nutritive 

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