238 USE OF COD-LIVER OIL IN FATTENING ANIMALS. 
experiment, and that the weight of the animals, the price 
obtained, and the outlay for food, should be carefully noted 
in comparison with others fed in the ordinary manner. The 
variety of my friend’s occupations prevented his giving to 
my plan the minute attention which could have been desired, 
and the results of which I had hoped before this to publish ; 
but the following letter from him contains matter of much 
interest, and, if I mistake not, foundation for future experi- 
ment and investigation : 
“ c You asked me to write you some particulars of my 
experiments upon fattening animals with cod oil. I will 
not attempt to give you any very minute details, but will 
endeavour to place before you a general view of what we 
have done, and as last winter I carried my plans out more 
fully than the preceding one, I will particularly speak of 
my operations at that time. And first of pigs. I kept 
upon an average three hundred, and killed from twenty 
to thirty per week, mostly porkers, from five to fifteen 
stone weight. The experiments were made by dividing 
off twenty pigs, and weighing each lot, keeping the meal 
separate, giving one lot two ounces of oil per diem, and 
both as much meal as they liked. I found the pigs taking 
the oil ate less meal, weighed the heaviest, and made the 
most money per stone in the London market, the fat being 
firm and white. Subsequently I have found that for small 
pigs one ounce of oil will do better. To larger pigs I have 
given a quarter of a pint per diem, and to small pigs also, 
but 1 have always found I lost money and credit for good 
pork when the larger quantity was given, and when killed 
the fat was yellow, and the flesh tasted fishy. From the 
weekly examination of so many pigs, I have concluded that 
the oil in no case cured a pig troubled with lung disease, 
but that when given in small quantities it was profitable, 
as the animal fatted upon a less amount of food, the oil 
tending to produce fat quickly. My experiments have led 
me to conclude that if given in a quantity which cannot be 
digested, it is then passed over the system in the shape of 
bile, so as to cause the yellow appearance in the fat. The 
farmer in such a case w r ould lose money, as my man did for 
me, believing that if so small a quantity w r ere good, more 
v-ould be better. 
“ 4 The result with sheep ha3 been more satisfactory ; 
with one ounce per day the fat has been beautifully white, 
and the flesh has been compared to short-cake, being light 
and easy of digestion. The lot of eighty gave general satis- 
faction to the consumers ; but the butchers complained of 
