130 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



will be as great as to produce animals of the same .weight 

 at 24 to 30 months ; or, in other words, skillful feeding of 

 young animals will produce twice as much weight at 24 as 

 at 48 months, on the same food. 



"But," say some, "your steer cannot be mature at 24 

 months." It is true that the marks of full development 

 are that the permanent teeth are complete, the animal 

 fully grown, and all its physical qualities perfect. The ox 

 perfects its teeth at four to five years, the pig at two to two 

 and one-half years. These times of dentition occur in a 

 state of nature, when the animals seek their own scanty 

 food, or under the care of a slipshod and penurious feeder. 

 But the improved breeds, after years of skillful feeding, 

 mature in from one to two and one-half years earlier. 



M. Regnault, at a cattle fair in France, in 1846, found a 

 bull only two years old that had all his permanent teeth, 

 and all the points of development and maturity in perfec- 

 tion ; and was from this fact led to make investigation of 

 the effect of careful and judicious breeding and feeding in 

 hastening the maturity of animals. He says : 



" Thanks to a better system of management and feeding 

 of cattle, and to judicious and advantageous crossings, it is 

 certain that many of our bovine race have experienced in 

 their form, and especially in their precocious development, 

 unmistakable changes for the better. Whatever may be 

 the cause of this remarkable aptitude of certain breeds to 

 acquire their growth early, it is evident that such preco- 

 cious development cannot be confined to any particular 

 organs. If every one has not equally participated in it, at 

 least they are all more or less affected by it. Above all, 

 the digestive system the part called in to play an impor- 

 tant part in producing such an aptitude for early develop- 

 ment, since all must essentially result from the nature and 

 action of alimentation must be one of the first to undergo 

 modifications." 



