866 [Assembly 



ox stalls might be enclosed, so that it may be unnecessary to tie the 

 animal by the head; let them be eight feet wide and twelve long, 

 with the manger and rack in the end; he will then keep himself per- 

 petually in motion, his muscles will be constantly performing their 

 natural functions, and lameness, the chief calamity to be dreaded, will 

 be avoid- d. The leg of the. ox is much more complicated than the 

 horse, inasmuch as it is divided at the fetlock, and he consequently 

 has two hoofs, two sets of pasterns, and two coffin boneS' — 'each hav- 

 ing its own tendons and ligaments, and each covered by a separate 

 integument, giving rise to numerous inflammations. The hoof is of- 

 ten irritated by small stones, and other substances, which insinuate 

 themselves between the two claws, causing intense pain, and great 

 annoyance to the pasterns, which at once swell; cattle are constitu- 

 tionally liable to diseases in their feet, such as the foul foot, &c., not 

 unlike the rot in the feet of sheep; I usually work oxen on the farm 

 from four years old to seven; when seven years old in the fall of the 

 year, they are only worked one day in the week for exercise, and 

 generously fed on simple food, such as beets, turnips, cut-straw, corn 

 stalks, &c. On the 1st of November they are stalled at night, allowed 

 good beds of straw and curried, and kept perfectly clean; during the 

 day when the weather is mild, they have the run of the yard, in or- 

 der that they may exercise, which is essential to the life and health 

 of every living animal; the flesh becomes richer and more palatable, 

 and the fat taken on is greater and more wholesome than formed by 

 those deprived of exercise, and kept always in confinement; the fat 

 then becomes a disease, as the animal is constantly fretting, inducing 

 fever, diminishing the gelatin, albumen and fibrin, besides rendering 

 the flesh stringy, indigestible, flabby and tough. The object I have 

 constantly in view is, w^hen fattening a beast, to obtain marbled flesh, 

 fine fibre, and delicately fine grained meat, and this can only be ob- 

 tained by exercise in the open air, and proper food. In winter I feed 

 my oxen sugar beets, potatoes, wheat-bran, a small quantity of 

 oil cake meal, &c., occasionally raw, frequently boiled — but place 

 more confidence in carrots as food, than any other root crop. From 

 the few experiments I have tried with that root, as food for cattle, I 

 am convinced that a stock farmer might derive great profits by feed- 

 ing his store cattle say 20 lbs. of hay per day, and as many carrots 

 as they would eat, clean, one day boiled and the next raw. Although 

 the carrot (Daucus Carota,) w^as introduced into England by the 

 Flemish refugees in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, no attention was 

 at first paid to its culture, as we find it was imported into England 

 from Holland towards the close of the sixteenth century, to supply 

 the London market. It is very farinaceous, yielding 270 lbs. of flour 

 from 1000 lbs. of roots, 1600 bushels may be raised to the acre. 



