430 HORNED CATTLE. 



As to the forage plants which are immediately turned into manuie, 

 it seems to me impossible to regard them as possessed of the proper 

 market value ; the farmer could not have sold them at this. In my 

 mode of looking at the thing, the cost of producing the forage crop, 

 and the value that it actually has, constitute a circulating capital, 

 the annual interest of which, estimated at a certain rate, expresses 

 the true cost-price or value of the manure employed in the 3ourse 

 of a rotation. In a word, in my eyes, the value of the manure 

 which gives fertility to the soil is represented by the price of the 

 labor, the rent charge, &c. — by the general outlay entailed by the 

 growth of the forage from which it is obtained. 



I shall endeavor, by and by, to illustrate this topic by examples ; 

 but in order thoroughly to understand this mode of estimating the 

 price of manure, there are several elements wanting, which I pro- 

 pose to assemble in this chapter- With this view, I shall first pre- 

 sent the facts which I have been able to collect, or which I have 

 myself had an opportunity of observing in reference to the economy 

 of the domestic animals attached to a farm ; and I shall then make 

 an attempt R) deduce the relation that exists between the consump- 

 tion of forage and litter, animal reproduction and increase, and the 

 formation of manure. 



^ HORNED CATTLE. 



It were foreign to the purpose of this work, did I enter into the 

 natural history of the animals that are usually attached to farming 

 establishments ; neither will I pretend to discuss the relative merits 

 of the different breeds of sheep and oxen, nor speak of the best 

 methods of improving them. I confine myself to the varieties which 

 I have on my own farm, or which I see on the farms of my neigh 

 bors, and upon which I have opportunity of making daily observa- 

 tions. It will be enough if I give a brief summary, in this place, 

 of the general principles admitted by practical men of the highest 

 name and authority upon these points.* 



Between the external forms of animals and the internal organs 

 essential to life, there is the most obvious and intimate connection. 

 A broad and deep chest is the sure indication of ample lungs and a 

 good general constitution. The pelvis, or bony cincture formed by 

 the rump and haunches, ought to be spacious in the females. A 

 small head is generally the indication of a good kind. Horns in our 

 domestic animals must be regarded as objectionable rather than use- 

 ful ; and by adopting measures which tend to repress their growth, 

 we undoubtedly favor both the prodiiction of flesh and wool. The 

 strength of animals depends far more on the degree in which their 

 muscular system is developed than on the mass of their bones ; it is, 

 besides, flesh, not bone, that has value in the butcher's eyes ; so 

 that the farmer's business is by all means to strive after a delicate 

 but well-covered skeleton. Animals which have been indifferently 



* Cllne, in General Report of Scotland ; Communication to the Board of Agrlcul 

 tore ; Bpencer on the choice of male animals for breeding from: Cully's Introduciioti, 

 |(C., on live nUK^ kc. . -^ 



