THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 201 



developed: and this with judicious crossing the 

 Doctor thinks must constitute the basis of ani- 

 mal improvement. But here he is in the co- 

 lumns of the American Agriculturist; let him 

 speak for himself: 



ORGANIC IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC 

 ANIMALS. 



Sheep and other animals were subdued and 

 domesticated long before their biped captors and 

 masters were able to keep a record of their do- 

 ings for the benefit of their posterity. Hence 

 we know little of the original stock from which 

 our domestic animals have descended, and less 

 of the early treatment they received at the hands 

 of our own progenitors. Nor is t his information 

 important. It concerns us mainly to understand 

 how a change of food, temperature, and of all 

 surrounding circumstances, will either improve 

 or deteriorate the organic structure and natural 

 functions, which transform for the practical far- 

 mer his cultivated plants, their seeds and roots, 

 into wool, beef, pork, milk, lard, butter, and 

 cheese. That there is a wide difference in the 

 results obtained, by the operation of this living 

 machinery in different animals, no observing 

 man can doubt. Of two cows of equal weight, 

 and consuming equal quantities of food precisely 

 alike, one will elaborate for its owner eighteen 

 quarts of milk in tweniyfour hours, while the 

 other can form but. nine quarts in the same length 

 of time. A pig, whose organization is appa- 

 rently nearly perfect, will elaborate from a given 

 amount of raw material, twice as much flesh 

 and fat, as another whose respiratory and assi- 

 milating machinery are very defective. Expe- 

 rience and science alike demonstrate the truth 

 of the remark that it takes fifty per cent, more 

 food to produce a given amount of muscular 

 strength and power of locomotion in one horse 

 or ox, than is required in another. Animals 

 that had a common parentage ten generations 

 back, now possess not only widely different 

 forms, but organic and constitutional peculiari- 

 ties, of great importance to those that in ay be- 

 come rich or poor, according to the well or ill 

 management of their herds and flocks. Emi- 

 nent success alone attends skill in the breeding 

 and keeping of domestic animals. This valua- 

 ble skill is acquired by close observation, and 

 studying the uniform laws of nature that govern 

 the growth, maturity, and decay of organic be- 

 ings. The most important and material changes 

 in the development of the organs of animals, 

 and in the function of each organ, are made 

 during the period that elapses from the first for- 

 mation of the embryo, to the maturity of each 

 living complex structure. 



"As the twig is bent the tree 's inclined." 



The plasticity of young animals and plants, 

 Vot. IV.— 26 



and the extreme changes that may be wrought 

 in their forms and habits are truly wonderful. — 

 The human brain itself can be moulded in in- 

 fancy into any shape to suit the whim or laste 

 of a "Flat-Head" or a " Round-Head" Indian. 

 Nor is there a single mental or physical function 

 in the human system, that may not be either 

 improved or impaired by the good or bad influ- 

 ences which may be brought to bear upon it.— - 

 The science of physiology is a noble science. 

 It enables cultivated reason to trace results — i he 

 products of animal life, such as flesh, fat, milkj 

 and wool — back to their known causes and 

 elements. 



I can hardly expert to give yOu even an out- 

 line of the organization and workings of this 

 complex vital machinery. There are, however, 

 a few cardinal points in this matter, which I 

 will endeavor to make clear and intelligible — 

 One is, that no animal or plant can possibly 

 transmute one simple elementary substance into 

 another. If a hen be fed on food that is quite 

 destitute of lime, the organs of her system can 

 not form an eggshell, so if a child, calf, or colt, 

 be kept on food that lacks phosphate of lime, its 

 bones will be soft and cartilaginous. No other 

 minerals can be changed into lime or phosphorus. 



Animal fat is a compound made up of carbon, 

 hydrogen, and oxygen ; and no other simple ele- 

 ments can possib!j>" make it. Lean meat and 

 wool contain the same elements, with the addi- 

 tion of nitrogen, sulphur, and several other earihy 

 ingredients in minute quantities. 



Knowing that no animal can create anew 

 one particle of matter, and that each compound 

 product has its peculiar constituent elemenis; 

 knowing also how much of those elements is 

 contained in any article of food, we can judge 

 of its fitness or unfitness to produce either bone, 

 muscle, fat, milk, wool, or any other animal pro- 

 duct. In other words, we can wisely adapt our 

 means to the ends we have in view. 



Suppose a farmer had one hundred hens in his 

 poultry-yard, and he desired them 10 lay as many 

 and perfect eggs as possible. Would it be an 

 unreasonable prescription to say to him that 

 "you must feed them liberally on food which 

 contains not only lime, but all the elements of 

 the contents of an eggshell in a concentrated 

 form ? Deny not the raw material, if you ex- 

 pect, the bird to elaborate for your table, or for 

 market, a large product of this article of human 

 food." 



Is it anything extraordinary that a race of 

 cows, whose mothers for many generations have 

 had their milk forming organs largely developed 

 by being fed on food well adapted to that end, 

 should secretefar more milk from a given amount 

 of raw material, than a race of wild cows, whose 

 lacteal glands had been denied all the advan- 

 tages that result from quietude, rich pasture, and 

 regular dry milking % 



