300 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



the elephant in Asia, are no less essential to internal commerce. In the south of Italy, 

 and in the European settlements in Africa, the ox alone is used in drawing carts and 

 waggons, and in all other agricultural operations. 



201.5. As articles of food man employs animals belonging to every class, from the 

 quadruped to the zoophyte. In some cases he makes choice of a part only of an animal, 

 in other cases he devours the whole. He kills and dresses some animals, while he 

 swallows others in a live state. The taste of man exhibits still more remarkable differ- 

 ences of a rational kind. The animals which are eagerly sought after by one tribe, are 

 neglected or despised by another. Even those which are prized by the same tribe in one 

 age, are rejected by their descendants in another. Thus the seals and porpoises, which, 

 a few centuries ago, were eaten in Britain, and were presented at the feasts of kings, are 

 now rejected by the poorest of the people. 



2016. Those quadrupeds and birds which feed on grass or grain are generally preferred by man to those 

 which subsist on flesh or fish. Even in the same animal, the flesh is not always of the same colour and 

 flavour, when compelled to subsist on different kinds of food. The feeding of black cattle with barley 

 straw has always the effect of giving to their fat a yellow colour. Ducks fed on grain have flesh very 

 different in flavour from those which feed on fish. The particular odour of the fat of some animals seems 

 to pass into the system unchanged, and, by its presence, furnishes us with an indication of the food which 

 has been used. No animals have yet been discovered whose flesh is poisonous, although some few among 

 the fishes and the mollusca are deleterious to the human constitution at particular seasons. 



2017. The use of skins, as articles of dress, is nearly coeval with our race. With the 

 progress of civilisation, the fur itself is used, or the feathers, after having been subjected 

 to a variety of tedious and frequently complicated processes. Besides the hair of quad- 

 rupeds, and the feathers of birds, used as clothing, a variety of products of the animal 

 kingdom, as bone, shells, pearls, and corals, are employed as ornaments of dress, in all 

 countries, however different in their degree of civilisation. 



2018. Medicine. The more efficient products of the mineral kingdom have in the 

 progress of the medical art in a great measure superseded the milder remedies furnished 

 by animals and vegetables. The blister-fly, however, still remains without a rival ; and 

 the leech is often resorted to, when the lancet can be of no avail. 



2019. The arts. The increase of the wants of civilised life calls for fresh exertions to 

 supply them, and the animal kingdom still continues to furnish a copious source of 

 materials for the arts. Each class presents its own peculiar offering, and the stores 

 which yet remain to be investigated appear inexhaustible. 



Chap. VIII. , 

 Principles of improving the Domestic Animals used in Agriculture. 



2020. The animals in use in British agriculture are few, and chiefly the horse, ox, 

 sheep, swine, goat, and domestic fowls. The first is used solely as a labouring animal, 

 and the rest chiefly as furnishing food. In applying the general principles of physiology 

 to these animals with a view to their improvement for the use of man, we shall consider 

 in succession the principles of breeding, rearing, and feeding. 



Sect. I. Objects to be kept in Vietv in the Improvement of Breeds. 



2021. The great object of the husbandman, in every case, is to obtain the most valuable 

 returns from his raw produce ; to prefer that kind of live stock, and .that breed of any 

 kind, which will pay him best for the food the animal consumes. The value to which 

 the animal itself may be ultimately brought, is quite a distinct and inferior consideration. 

 (Geyi. Rep. Scot., c. xiv.) 



2022. To improve the ^nrm rather than to enlarge the size, in almost every case, ought to 

 be the grand object of iir, provement. Size must ever be determined by the abundance 

 or scarcity of food, and every attempt to enlarge it beyond that standard must prove un- 

 successful, and, for a time, destructive to the thriving of the animals, and the interest of 

 their owners. It is certain that animals, too large or too small, will alike approach to 

 that profitable size which is best adapted to their pastures ; but the large animal becomes 

 unhealthy, and degenerates in form, and in all its valuable properties ; whereas the small 

 one, while it increases in size, improves in every respect. (Gen. Rep. Scot., c. xiv.) 



Sect. II. Of the Means of improving the Breed of Animals- 



2023. By improvement of a breed is to be understood the producing such an alteration 

 in shape or description, as shall render the animal better fitted for the labours he has to 

 perform ; better fitted for becoming fat ; or for producing milk, wool, eggs, feathers, or 

 particular qualities of these. The fundamental principle of this amelioration is the pro- 



