198 STABLE ECONOMY. 



of the system, one or two may be in greater request than the 

 others. 



Besides the Nutritive Matter, food contains other 

 substances. Roots, and herbage uudried, contain a large 

 quantity of water ; and new grain and new hay have more 

 than the old. In many articles there is much woody fibre, 

 which passes through the stomach and bowels like inert 

 matter, having no nutritious nor any medical property. This, 

 however, is useful ; for, to be in health, it is necessary that 

 the stomach and bowels suffer a moderate degree of distention, 

 which is most cheaply, and perhaps most safely produced by 

 the woody fibre. Bean straw, I believe, furnishes more in 

 proportion to its bulk than any other fodder : grains and roots 

 have not much. Hay stands next to straw. It is probable 

 that several kinds of food, possibly all the kinds, contain some 

 ingredients neither inert nor nutritious, but still very useful. 

 To digest the food, the stomach must be in a particular state ; 

 the food itself excites that state ; but it is not likely that every 

 portion or ingredient of the food is equally able to rouse the 

 digestive process. In some articles a bitter ingredient is 

 found, which is supposed to stimulate the stomach, and other 

 portions of the digestive apparatus to action. It has been 

 termed. 



Bitter Extract. — It is distinguished from all other in- 

 gredients chiefly by its bitter taste. In some plants it is found 

 in great abundance, in some others, not at all, or only in cer- 

 tain stages of their growth. It maintains some relation to the 

 amount of nutriment. Those plants which have little nutri- 

 tious matter have much of the bitter principle, and grain has 

 most before it is ripe. 



" It seems to be as essential to herbivorous, as salt is to 

 carnivorous animals. It acts as a natural stimulant. Several 

 experiments have proved that it passes through the stomach 

 and bowels without suffering any diminution in quantity, or 

 any change in composition. No cattle will thrive upon food 

 which does not contain a portion of this bitter principle. The 

 researches of the late Mr. Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of 

 Bedford, fully established this fact. As recorded in the Hor- 

 tus Gramineus Woburnensis, they show that, when sheep are 

 fed exclusively upon yellow turnips, which contain almost no' 

 bitter matter, they instinctively seek and devour any proven- 

 der which does. If unable to find it, they sicken and die." 



[A Table of the Comparative Value of different 

 Kinds of Fodder for Cattle has been published by M 



