34 Soiling. 



When we come to consider our plants as depend- 

 ing upon us, like our animals, for their f-ood supply : 

 when we come to consider our animals as so many 

 machines or factories, and ourselves as the proprie- 

 tors of so many mills, and as truly a manufacturer 

 as the man who runs a cotton or grist mill: when 

 we consider that all these mills are dependent upon 

 the fertility of the soil, we have mastered the funda- 

 mental principles of farming. Whether we require 

 of our animals beef, milk, butter, cheese, wool, mut- 

 ton, or motive power, the raw material from which 

 these things are produced is simply the food these 

 animals consume, and, as in any other mill or fac- 

 tory, the profit realized by the owner is what these 

 animals can be induced to consume beyond the 

 amount required to sustain life, and heat the blood, 

 and supply waste. 



An engine requires, say, ten pounds of coal per 

 hour to produce power enough to sustain itself in 

 motion. The profit to the owner will be found in 

 the amount of coal it can be made to consume in 

 excess of the ten pounds to a point where the con- 

 sumption of coal cannot be utilized in the engine. 

 Repeated experiments at home and abroad have 

 demonstrated that it takes two per cent, of the live 

 weight of cattle or sheep per day to live. A cow, 

 for instance, weighing i,ooo pounds requires twenty 

 pounds of hay or its equivalent to heat the blood 

 and supply the waste. The profit or economy in 

 feeding that cow will be, therefore, as in the case of 

 the steam engine, found in the amount she is able 



