456 
Farming of Cornwall. 
steamed turnips, a little bay and oats occasionally when Lard 
worked ; and although they perspire more freely than those fed 
in the usual way, yet they look exceedingly well, are particularly 
sleek and fine in their coats, and appear to do their work as well 
as horses fed only on hay and oats ; and, on the whole, they are 
less liable to disease.* If there is any truth in Liebig's state- 
ment — " that every manifestation of force, however trivial, is 
accompanied by a change of matter in the body " — it must be 
evident that there is no inconsiderable saving effected in the wear 
and tear of the tissues, as well as in the consumption of fat, in 
feeding animals in this manner. In the cutting of hay and straw 
into cliafF, in the slicing of turnips, and in the bruising of oats and 
beans, we have examples of economy unwittingly practised by the 
farmer ; and there cannot be a doubt that the cooking of food, for 
cattle particularly, will be found to effect still further sa\'ing. 
82. Pigs. — The improvement effected in the breed of pigs 
within the last twenty years is greater than in any other of our 
domesticated animals. The old Cornish variety was a large, 
white-coloured, long-sided, heavy-boned, razor-backed animal, that 
possessed little aptitude to fatten. It is now nearly extinct, and 
when found is looked on with wonder. The present varieties 
are crossings of the old breed with the Berkshire, Leicester, 
Chinese, Neapolitan, and the improved Essex. The black- 
coloured pigs are preferred, as the skin of this kind does not 
blister with the heat of the sun, as in the white-coloured breed. 
They require little other food than vegetables and the wash of 
the farm-house, except during the fattening, when 24 gallons of 
barley-meal will suffice to bring them up, at nine months old, 
to from 350 to 400 lbs. 
Animal Labour. 
83. Horse and 0.v Teams. — About forty years since, oxen 
were regularly worked on road and field, but at present they are 
* Farm horses are peculiarly liable to flatulent cholic, inflammation of 
the bowels, and acute indigestion, which frequently arises from an indis- 
criminate use of barley-straw, and ill-saved hay. Pneumonia, or inflam- 
mation of the substances of the lungs, is seldom met with. This arises 
from the mean temperature of the climate, being in Cornwall only 8° — 
that of London is 11° — the eff"ect of which is, that the warmth of summer 
is never so great as to occasion either a too rapid development or too 
high an excitement of organized bodies, nor the cold of winter so extreme 
as to depress the vitality to an injurious degree. On the contrary, tetanic 
diseases are ver)' common among horses — even the hardy donkey has been 
known to die of traumatic and idiopathic tetanus in a district bordering 
on the south channel. This probably arises from the immense oceanic 
boundary of the Cornish peninsula. 
