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On increasing our Supplies of Animal Food. 



parts of the question, to discuss, in the first place, those answers 

 which seem to claim the earliest consideration. The question is — 



How can we best increase our supplies of animal food ? 



And the answers are : — 



1. First; by increasing; the fertility of our land; by increasing 

 in the soil the amount of that matter which, after union with con- 

 tributions from air and from water in the substance of growing 

 plants, really supplies the very particles which are ultimately 

 gathered up by animal digestion into the form of meat. 



2. Secondly : after the attainment of a maximum fertility of land, 

 by such a skilful use of the building materials it supplies, as shall 

 result in the erection, along with the due proportion of grain and 

 other vegetable produce for the use of man, of a maximum of 

 nourishing food for the use of animals. Under this head the 

 questions of, arable versus pasture-land — rotations of crops — 

 selections of the best plants, &c. — will require consideration. 



3. And thirdly ; after the attainment of this maximum produce 

 of food, by the selection of such animals and the adoption of 

 such modes of treating them as shall occasion the least waste in 

 the conversion of this food. Here, the qualities of our different 

 breeds of cattle and sheep as regards early maturity, proportion 

 of offal, &c. — the various modes of preparing and administering 

 food — and the methods of housing and treating live stock will 

 need consideration. 



When perfect fertility shall have been attained, and the best 

 crops in the best order of succession shall have been employed to 

 develop it ; and when the best animals, under the best circum- 

 stances shall have been fed upon the produce of them, then will 

 any farm have attained its maximum productiveness of animal 

 food. And after considering the successive steps to so desirable 

 an end, it will be necessary to refer to the other points which the 

 Society has named, and to inquire how far economy in the process 

 is served by the purchase of lean stock instead of breeding it, or 

 by keeping animals fattening to greater age than is common ; and 

 taking a national view of the subject it will also be right to inquire 

 what dependence for the supply of lean stock can be placed on the 

 sources now in operation. 



It will be seen that the subject the Society has proposed is 

 thus a very extensive one, requiring, if fully treated, a discussion 

 of what is in fact the whole practice of agriculture. Space, how- 

 ever, would not be allowed me to enter into such detail as might 

 be desirable on all the branches of the inquiry ; and I shall 

 therefore give, as briefly as possible, the earlier answers, stating 

 at full length only those more immediate ones which, indeed, 

 might alone, at first sight, appear to belong to it. 



I. First; it is to an increased fertility of the soil that we must 



