6 
Breedinff of Farm-Stoch. 
tious elements of food, so as to introduce it into the circulation 
with as little loss as possible. 
The second step is to separate a large proportion of these 
elements in the form of rich milk. 
Any circumstance wliich causes a waste of the fatty and 
nutritive ingredients in the food necessarily causes the milk to 
be ol inl'erior value. It is exactly the same with the formation 
and preservati(m of the fatty matter of the blood, whether its 
subsequent appropriation be as the fat of milk or the fat of the 
body ; for that animal which can most economically convert the 
lat-producing matter of food into the fattv matter found in the 
lilood has most successfully accomplished the first step. In the 
fattening of a bullock, as Avell as in the feeding of a milch cow, 
the fatty matter of the food has to be taken up into the blood, 
and it depends upon the organism of the animal whether it shall 
be subsequently deposited in the form of fat or excreted as the 
cream of milk. It is, however, evident that an economical pre- 
paration of the materials of the food is equally important for 
the formation of the fatty matter of the blood, whatever may be 
the form into which the animal system may convert it ; and for 
this reason those animals which are best adapted for fattening 
are also best prepared to fulfil the first condition essential for the 
production of rich milk. 
We have now to consider the influence of the animal system 
upon the rich fatty matter circulating in its blood. The forma- 
tion of milk is primarily dependent upon the activity of the 
mammary glands, which are naturally excited to action a short 
time prior to the birth of the offspring. The energy of these 
glands is naturally superior to the tendency which the animal 
possesses for the formation of fat ; so much so, indeed, that when 
the food is deficient in oily matter fat which has been already 
formed is sometimes taken up again into the circulation and sepa- 
rated by the mammary glands in the milk. Thus we find that 
when these glands are acting in a healthy and energetic manner, 
the fatty matter of the blood is freely separated by their agency, 
and we have a rich milk produced. In very many instances these 
glands have assumed an unnatural and torpid condition, have 
become less susceptible of the energy usually imparted by the 
birth of offspring, and have been influenced by it for a shorter 
period of time. In such cases, although the food may have been 
well prepared and the blood may travel through the vessels of 
the glands richly laden with the elements of milk, yet, from 
their torpidity, they may fail to appropriate it as milk, and the 
blood may pass on to yield its treasure to other parts of the 
body. Our great endeavour should therefore be to encourage a 
more active condition of these glands. These organs, in common 
