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quantity of nutritive matter contained in these plants, how- 
ever, is not found to be sufficient for the healthy existence 
of man ; he requires that these principles should be put in 
a more concentrated form, and that part of them should be 
somewhat modified by the lower animals before they are 
suitable to his taste, and probably to his existence ; hence, 
a considerable portion of his first produce is lost by support- 
ing the lives of such animals as he chooses to make use of 
for this purpose. The amount of flesh and fat formed by 
a feeding cow or sheep is very small compared to the amount 
which it takes in its food, so that we do not, in feeding, 
obtain more than a fractional amount of what is contained in 
the vegetable produce. I find, from some of the best 
authorities, that the maximum amount of flesh which the 
best animal will put on, when fed on the most suitable food, 
is about 233 lbs. in 14 weeks; so that in one year animals 
of this kind, fed after each other, might produce 865 lbs. 
The food consumed in the production of this amount of 
flesh would be about 
30 tons of turnips, containing 121 lbs. of nitrogen. 
14 cwts. of linseed cake, containing 70^ lbs. do. 
Straw, ad libitum. 
Now, in the food of the feeding cow we have nutriment 
represented by 191 \ of nitrogen, and in the flesh which it 
produces we have only twenty-four pounds of this element ; 
hence a sacrifice of seven-eighths of the nutriment is con- 
stantly made in this, and a much larger portion, in most 
instances, where animals are reared and fattened. Surely in 
times like the present, when every article of food is of vital 
importance, and since, with a rapidly increasing population, 
it must annually become more so, this startling fact should 
lead to processes of greater economy ; and I shall now 
endeavour to show that this economy may be easily attained 
by the more abundant cultivation of milk. 
