310 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



geese of Alsace, which are free from these cruel operations, acquire a prodigious fatness, 

 which may be called an oleaginous dropsy, the effect of a general atony of the absorbents, 

 caused by want of exercise, combined with succulent food crammed down their throats, 

 and in an under-oxygenated atmosphere. [Encyc. Brit. Sup., art. Food.) 



2089. Early lamb. As an instance of both breeding and feeding for extraordinary 

 purposes, we may mention the practice of those farmers who furnish the tables of the 

 wealthy with lamb, at almost every season of the year, by selecting certain breeds of 

 sheep, such as the Dorsetshire, which lamb very early, or by treating them in such a way 

 as to cause the female to come in heat at an unnatural time. In this way, lamb is pro- 

 cured as an article of luxury, as early as November and December ; and, on the contrary, 

 by keeping the ewe on a cold and poor hilly pasture, the lambing season is retarded, and 

 lamb furnished in September and October. 



2090. Feeding for promoting the produce of milk or eggs. That which in plants or 

 animals is produced for particular purposes in nature may, by certain modes of treat- 

 ment, be rendered, for a time, a habit in the plant or animal, without reference to 

 its natural end. Thus in many cases annual plants may be rendered perennial by 

 continually pinching off their flowers as they appear ; and animals which give milk or lay 

 eggs may be made to produce both for a much longer time than is natural to them, by 

 creating a demand in their constitutions for these articles, by frequent and regular milk- 

 ings, and by taking away every egg as soon as produced ; and then, by appropriate food, 

 furnishing the constitution with the means of supplying this demand, by rich liquid food, 

 in the case of milking animals, and by dry, stimulating, and nourishing food, in the case 

 of poultry. 



2091. Feeding to ft animals for hard labour or long journeys. It seems agreed on, 

 that dry rich food is the best for this purpose ; and that very much depends on rubbing, 

 cleaning, and warmth, in the intervals between labour and rest, in order to maintain 

 something of the increased circulation ; and, in short, to lessen the influence of the 

 transition from the one to the other. The quantity of water given should never be con- 

 siderable; at least in cold countries and seasons. (See Horse, in Contents or Index.) 



Sect. V. Of the Modes of killing Animals. 



2092. The mode of killing animals has considerable effect on the flesh of the animal. 

 Most of those slaughtered for food are either bled to death, or are bled profusely imme- 

 diately after being deprived of life in some other way. The common mode of killing 

 cattle in this kingdom is, by striking them on the forehead with a pole-axe, and then 

 cutting their throats to bleed them. But this method is cruel, and not free from danger. 

 The animal is not always brought down by the first blow, and the repetition is difficult 

 and uncertain ; and, if the animal be not very well secured, accidents may happen. 

 Lord Somerville {^General Survey of the Agriculture of Shropshire, by Joseph Plymley, M.A., 

 8vo. London, 1803, p. 243.) therefore endeavoured to introduce the method of pithing 

 or laying cattle, by dividing the spinal marrow above the origin of the phrenic nerves, 

 as is commonly practised in Barbary, Spain, Portugal, Jamaica, and in some parts of 

 England ; and Jackson says, that the " best method of killing a bullock is by thrusting 

 a sharp-pointed knife into the spinal marrow, when the bullock will immediately fall 

 without any struggle, then cut the arteries about the heart." {Reflections on the Commerce 

 of the Meditenninean, by John Jackson, Esq. F. S. A., 8vo. London, 1804, p. 91.) 

 Although the operation of pithing is not so difficult but that it may, with some practice, 

 be performed with tolerable/ certainty ; and although Lord Somerville took a man with 

 him to Portugal to be instructed in the method, and made it a condition that the prize 

 cattle at his exhibitions should be pithed instead of being knocked down, still pithing is 

 not becoming general in Britain. This may be partly owing to prejudice ; but we have 

 been told that the flesh of the cattle killed in this way in Portugal is very dark, and be- 

 comes soon putrid, probably from the animal not bleeding well, in consequence of the 

 action of the heart being interrupted before the vessels of the neck are divided. It there- 

 fore seems preferable to bleed the animal to death directly, as is practised by the Jew 

 butchers. 



2093. Du Gard''s observations on pithing deserve attention. This gentleman, a 

 surgeon of the Shrewsbury Infirmary, after mature consideration, is against the practice, 

 sis causing more pain than it is intended to avoid. He says, " Pain and action are 

 so generally joined, that we measure the degree of pain by the loudness of the cries, and 

 violence of the consequent exertion ; and therefore conclude, on seeing two animals killed, 

 that .the one which makes scarcely a struggle, though it may continue to breathe, suffers 

 less than that which is more violently convulsed, and struggles till life is exhausted. It 

 appears, however, that there may be acute pain without exertion, perhaps as certainly as 

 there is action without pain ; even distortions that at the first glance would seem to pro- 

 ceed from pain, are not always really accompanied with sensation. To constitute pain 

 there must be a communication between the injured organ and the brain." 



