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betray in providing for their wants ! How unbounded is our abuse 
of the service they render us ! It is a fact which we cannot re- 
peat too often, because, when thoroughly felt and understood, it 
will, perhaps, lead us to endeavour to find a remedy, for the evil 
which the bad management exercised in the breeding and rearing 
of our domesticated animals produces in a frightful degree the 
diseases which destroy them. 
Up to the present time it has been overlooked too much, that 
the very fact of man’s having been permitted to reign as master 
in this world ought to induce him to endeavour to exercise to 
the best advantage that power, in order that all his actions may 
be marked with the impress of that superior intelligence which 
constitutes his distinctive character, and that, while modifying 
and appropriating to his use the things of this earth, he may not 
infringe on the conditions essential to their existence. 
We crowd into narrow, low, and damp stables, where air and 
light are continually wanted, the cows who furnish the purest 
and most healthy nourishment of the great towns ; and then, we 
regret to observe, the poor animals sink under dreadful diseases, 
so that on an average they seldom live more than a couple of 
years. We are astonished to find such habitations transformed 
into absolute pest-houses, from which all the epizootics that do so 
much injury derive their source. If, however, any thing ought 
to astonish the attentive observer, it is not these epizootics nor 
this fatality, but that life and production should continue so 
long, or are at all compatible with the dreadful state in which, by 
our mismanagement, we place our valuable cattle. 
Where is the remedy for such an evil? 
In a better regard to their health. 
When will the time arrive in which rules will be laid down by 
science for the proper construction of our buildings ! — when shall 
we have the good sense to limit the number of animals which they 
ought to contain, and give to each its requisite portion of light 
and food ! Then, and only then, will our animals be placed in a 
situation more conformable to the laws of their nature, live longer, 
and produce more nutritious and wholesome food than they can 
possibly yield in the artificial state in which we compel them to ve- 
getate. The diseases which attack the ovine species also daily shew 
the want of foresight in man, and the state of imperfection and 
inefficiency in which the different branches of our agriculture are 
still found. 
Sometimes rendered parsimonious to excess by a temporary 
pressure almost of penury, we diminish their food so- much as 
scarcely to allow them sufficient for their subsistence. Afterwards, 
rendered prodigal from luxuriant crops, we provide them with sub- 
