676 AN ESSAY ON FAT AND MUSCLE. 
dividuals ; for were we to breed the Shetland pony on the best 
Lincoln pastures, it would take many hundred successive genera- 
tions before his race would approximate to the size of the breeds 
that are natural to this district. 
But although the size of different breeds of animals is seemingly 
fixed, or dependent only on climate and soil, still much has been 
done by care and attention in breeding and rearing. Our attention 
here will chiefly be directed to the rearing department , where there 
is a great deal of mismanagement, even amongst our very best 
breeders. With some, it is a common practice in the rearing of a 
bull-calf to place the young animal, shortly after he is weaned, in 
a narrow stall, and to feed him with raw milk and oatmeal gruel, 
and afterwards with some of the artificial and natural grasses, hay 
and turnips, & c. — the breeder feeling perfectly satisfied that his 
system is a right one, so long as the animal is looking plump and 
fat. The effect of this, as we have already shewn, would be without 
doubt to lessen the size of the lungs and other organs concerned 
in nutrition, and produce a breed that will carry immense masses 
of fat, come quickly to maturity, and also when they breed produce 
the same qualities in their offspring. But however desirable those 
qualities may be, depend on it there are others of an opposite 
character which are also to be attended to ; these are, weight of 
muscle, strength of constitution, and the capability of propagating 
their race — to produce all which quite a different system must be 
adopted. There is a certain amount of exercise which muscles 
require to encourage their proper development and growth that 
never can possibly be obtained by a young animal confined in this 
manner. The degree of activity in the nutrition of muscles depends 
in a great measure upon the use that is made of them ; and thus 
we find that any set of muscles in continual employment undergoes 
a great increase in size and vigour, whilst those that are disused 
lose their firmness and diminish in bulk. Cattle require not such 
exercise as would tend to harden the muscular fibre, but just so 
much as would keep the animal in a healthy state, and prevent 
those enormous accumulations of fat which so frequently disfigure 
and so materially injure our very best breeds of cattle. This was 
particularly observed in many of the short-horned milch cows that 
won the Society’s prizes at Derby, that were better adapted, in 
consequence of their immense fatness, to compete for prizes offered 
for fatted stock, and many of which will be prevented from 
breeding for the future. 
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 necessary to house 
him, we would recommend that the house or shed should be attached 
