276 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



beef, because it enables them to prevent the importation of 

 live cattle from the Continent, and thus prevent the de- 

 struction of their herds by disease. Here the American 

 feeder may meet the English farmer in competition, at 

 Liverpool or London, on even more than equal terms, be- 

 cause the cost of transportation is much less than the 

 advantage possessed by the American farmer in cheaper 

 land, and, consequently, cheaper food. Everything seems 

 to point to the rapid growth of this trade in fresh meat 

 and live cattle to be slaughtered on arrival; and it is highly 

 probable that our cattle products will, in a few years, reach 

 a figure in our exports little, if any, less than one hundred 

 millions. We have, therefore, the greatest incentive to 

 improve our process of cattle-feeding, that we may lay the 

 foundation for the most provident and profitable system of 

 tillage. 



HOME-BRED CATTLE. 



Although breeding is not included in the plan we had 

 laid out, yet judicious management of the animals is one of 

 the primary considerations required in successful feeding. 

 Kind treatment and growth, gentleness and the graceful 

 lines of animal beauty, are all closely related to each other. 

 The skillful feeder must study the effect of excitement 

 upon the animal system, and of excessive muscular exer- 

 tion upon the deposit of fat. When he learns that excite- 

 ment will cause a cow to secrete milk almost devoid of 

 cream, he will see that the steer cannot deposit fat when 

 its nervous system is disturbed. Nervous excitement in 

 the human race is known as always opposed to a fleshy 

 habit. ' Nervous excitement seems to consume very rapidly 

 the fat of the body. " Laugh and grow fat," has become a 

 proverb. So the quiet, easy, undisturbed animal makes a 

 good use of all its surplus food in laying on flesh and fat. 

 How very important, then, that the feeder should rear all 

 his animals in the atmosphere of kindness-^that they 



