An Essay on Fat and Muscle. 
•263 
pursue the same plan the following winter, and you fix the shape 
for life — the one a handsome, strong, muscular animal ; the other 
a coarse and plain one. It is bj proper feeding, and a proper 
degree of shelter given to the young stock, during the first three 
winters, that some horses are got to such perfection as we some- 
times see, having clean limbs, large powerful muscles, and good 
action; for, had those colts been kept hard, and exposed to the 
weather, they would never have attracted any attention. 
24. In the rearing of store cattle, the same care is not required 
as we have recommended for breeding ones — the object of the 
feeder in this instance being to obtain as much profit as he can 
from the food which the animals consume : hence, their value 
must be determined by the profit which they yield to the breeder 
and feeder conjointly, from birth to maturity ; but, even in this 
case, it may be worth the farmer's notice to be acquainted with 
the fact, that nearly the whole of the fleshy part of an animal, 
which will afford any profit to him, is assimilated chiefly during 
the period of its growth. When it has arrived at its full growth, 
the addition made to its bulk is chiefly an accumulation of fat, 
which surrounds and is intermingled with the substance of the 
muscle. Thus, the object of the farmer whose purpose is profit, 
will be to force his stock on, during the period of their growth, 
by such kind of food as will produce the largest quantity of 
muscle at the least expense. 
25. The farmer must now see the necessity of giving his 
growing stock peas, beans, and barley-meal, in conjunction with 
good hay, grass, and turnips, varied, of course, according to the 
seasons, and other circumstances. Experience has proved that 
health and appetite are best promoted by a change of diet, rather 
than by limiting the quantity and quality. There should be no 
cessation in the rearing and feeding of cattle, for those that are 
stuffed and starved by turns are sure to prove unprofitable to 
the feeder ; and there is no more certain rule in the rearing of 
young stock than this — that those that suffer a deprivation either 
in quantity or quality of food, never become perfectly developed, 
either in bulk or proportions. 
26. It forms a curious and interesting subject for the feeder to 
ascertain the respective quantities of the fleshing and fattening 
properties contained in an acre of the different crops commonly 
used in the rearing and feeding of stock. The following acreable 
table of nutrition has been constructed chiefly from Professor 
Johnston's calculations — the proportions of gluten, &c., from 
Boussingault's analyses, which indicate the fleshing properties; 
and the proportions of starch, gum, and sugar, the fattening 
properties : — 
