678 
AN ESSAY ON FAT AND MUSCLE. 
food which the animals consume : hence their value must be de- 
termined 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. 
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. 
The farmer needs not to learn from this or any other table the 
importance of a turnip-crop, it being acknowledged by all that it is, 
indeed, the sheet-anchor of light-soil cultivation; for although the 
per centage of nutritious matter is trifling in the turnips, when 
compared wflth that of peas, beans, oats, or barley, yet the im- 
mense weight of these roots that can be grown — sometimes as 
much as forty or fifty tons per acre — gives so very large a 
quantity of nutritious matters, that Swede turnips may well be 
called the raw material for the manufacture of beef. The farmer 
will also see the peculiar adaptation of the carrot crop to the rearing 
and fattening of stock — the nutritious matters which they contain 
being greater than turnips, and being admirably fitted for the heavier 
description of soils, where turnips cannot be successfully cultivated. 
He will also see, from the immense weight of water contained in 
those roots, that it is desirable to give some dry provender to his 
sheep, such as oat or barley meal, oat-straw, hay, or pea-haulm, 
which would prevent the frequent scouring of those animals, the 
consequence of so much watery food ; and, by occasioning the food 
to remain longer in their stomachs, a greater quantity of nourish- 
ment would probably be obtained than when eaten alone. 
The hay-crop varies very considerably in its per centage of 
