426 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 
perties were likely to increase the assimilation of food, altliongh 
they might cause a larger quantity of food to pass through the 
stomach of the animal. 
As food for animals in good health, condiments are not to be 
recommended ; as medicines they, no doubt, had properties of a 
stimulating character, which would enable animals to digest food 
when they could not otherwise do so. 
Mr. SiMPSOX said tliat a Yorkshire friend of his, a successful pig- 
brecder, remarked, refemng to Mr. Lawcs's trials on pigs, that either 
that gentleman must have selelected a very bad sort of pig, or Iris 
barley-meal was of inferior qualitj'', because he coidd ahvays make his 
pigs produce a larger amount of meat from a given quantity of barley- 
meal than Mr. Lawes had done. 
Mr. Fkere said. Last spring I was told by my bailiff that two cows, 
when tied up to fatten, did not thrive as was expected, and had better 
be sold. I thought, however, that it might be of service to the Society 
to try them on Thorley's Food, with which they were accordingly fed 
for three months, being weighed at first every fortnight, and then each 
month. At the end of three months Thorley's food was discontinued, 
and the animals kept on for two months longer. Their food was con- 
tinued precisely the same as it had been for one month before Thor- 
ley's food was supplied them, dm-ing which mouth they did not gain 
in weight. During the first two months when Thorley's food was 
given them the cows gained in weight, in the third month they 
remained of the same weight. The gain of one animal for the first 
two months was 74 lbs. in all, which would be at the rate of 9 lbs. 
a-weck for the first eight weeks, or 6 lbs. a-week over the whole three 
months. The increase upon the other animal for the two months was 
58 lbs., or at the rate of 7 lbs. a-week for the eight weeks, or 5 lbs. 
a-week for the twelve weeks. During this time each cow gave 
6 quarts of millc daily, being, to the best of my belief, an increase of 
one quart per day upon what it was before administering Thorley's 
Food ; directly we left off Thorley's Food, at the end of three months, 
the milk fell from 6 quarts to 4 daily, a result which was, perhaps, 
aided by the time that had intervened from the period of calving. 
But still there was a more rapid transition than the gradual falling off 
of milk under ordinary circumstances. This food, whilst it increased 
the milk, produced no bad effects upon the flavom* of the milk and 
butter. The animals were valued at 28/. in the spring, and were sold 
for 32Z. in the autumn ; they were probably worth as much in July, at 
the end of the three months, as at the end of five ; and if the milk 
they gave was valued at 2(?. a quart, they paid for their food dm-ing 
the three months in which Thorley's food was supplied them, and did 
not pay for their food dm-ing the two months aftcrvrards. I consider, 
then, that condiments are serviceable for stock that is ailing, but not 
for healthy animals in general. 
Professor Simonds. — Although this subject is one which is fraught 
mth interest to farmers, m.my of them are in the habit of making too 
much of it. Condiments, indeed, are no longer forced upon the notice 
of the public as food ; we hear no more of the concentrated materials 
