262 
An Essay on Fat and Muscle. 
lations of fat which so frequently disfigure and so materially 
injure our very best breeds of cattle. This was particularly ob- 
served in many of the short-horned milch cows that won the 
Society's prizes at Derby, that were better adapted, in conse- 
quence of their immense fatness, to compete for prizes offered foi* 
fatted stock ; and many of which will be prevented from breeding 
for the future. 
22. During the first two years, as long as the weather will 
permit, the young bull should be allowed to range in the 
meadows ; and when the autumn advances, and it becomes ne- 
cessary to house him, we would recommend that the house or 
shed should be attached to a straw-yard, into which he may be 
occasionally turned during the mild dry days in the winter. We 
are aware of the trouble to be apprehended from grazing animals 
of this description during the second summer, but we know the 
plan is commonly practised in localities where the enclosures are 
conveniently small, without any difficulty or danger. 
23. We stated at the commencement of this essay that the living 
organism is incapable of producing an elementary body out of sub- 
stances which do not contain it ; a statement in common parlance 
meaning, "that a horse which gets kicks instead of oats is not likely 
to maintain a working condition." In the rearing of young ani- 
mals of all descriptions, it must be evident that substances rich in 
nitrogen are particularly required for the growth of the various 
parts of the body, since there is no part of an organ that contains 
less than 17 per cent. (3.). For the growth of bone, muscle, 
blood, membranes, skin, horn, hair, and cellular tissue, a certain 
amount of this substance is absolutely necessary. We have shown 
that they do not obtain much, if any, of this substance from the 
air: it must therefore necessarily be supplied in the food. In 
the rearing of horses, where the object is to produce a great de- 
velopment of muscle, this is particularly required : hence it is 
the practice of intelligent breeders to supply the young stock 
with a proper allowance of oats, peas, beans, and shelter, during 
the winter ; and it is from the want of those requisites that so 
many thousands of horses are yearly rendered worthless. The 
young animal is placed on our globe tolerably perfect from the 
hands of the Creator, but its degeneracy is frequently owing to 
the treatment pursued in the rearing. Only compare a yearling 
colt that has been well housed and well fed during the winter, with 
one that has been turned out, and fed chiefly with hay, straw, and 
turnips — the food usually allowed by farmers to this kind of stock 
in the winter; and although equally fine and clean in their re- 
spective points when separated in the autumn, yet they bear no 
kind of comparison, either in size or beauty, in the spring. Again 
