ORGANIC IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
211 
ORGANIC IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC 
ANIMALS. 
Sheep and other animals were subdued and do¬ 
mesticated, long- before their biped captors and 
masters were able to keep a record of their doings 
for the benefit of their posterity. Hence we know 
liitle of the original stock from which our domes¬ 
tic animals have descended, and less of the early 
treatment they received, at the hands of our own 
progenitors. Nor is this information important. 
It concerns us mainly to understand how a change 
of food, temperature, and of all surrounding circum¬ 
stances, will either improve or deteriorate the or¬ 
ganic structure and natural functions, which trans¬ 
form for the practical farmer his cultivated plants, 
their seeds and roots, into wool, beef, pork, milk, 
lard, butter, and cheese. That there is a wide 
difference in the results obtained, by the operation 
of this living machinery in different animals, no 
observing man can doubt. Of two cows of equal 
weight, and consuming equal quantities of food 
precisely alike, one will elaborate for its owner 18 
quarts of milk in 24 hours, while the other can 
form but 9 quarts in the same length of time. A 
pig, whose organization is apparently nearly per¬ 
fect, will elaborate from a given amount of raw 
material, twice as much flesh and fat, as another 
whose respiratory and assimilating machinery are 
very defective. Experience and science alike de¬ 
monstrate the truth of the remark that it takes 50 
per cent, more food to produce a given amount of 
muscular strength and power of locomotion in one 
horse or ox, than is required in another. Animals 
that had a common parentage ten generations 
back, now possess not only widely different forms, 
but organic and constitutional peculiarities, of great 
importance to those that may become rich or poor, 
according to the well or ill management of their 
herds and flocks. Eminent success alone attends 
skill in the breeding and keeping of domestic an¬ 
imals. This valuable skill is acquired by close ob¬ 
servation, and studying the uniform laws of nature 
that govern the growth, maturity, and decay of or¬ 
ganic beings. The most important and material 
changes in the development of the organs of an¬ 
imals, and in the function of each orofan, are made 
during the period that elapses from the first forma¬ 
tion of the embryo, to the maturity of each living 
complex structure. 
■“As the twig is bent the tree ? s inclined.” 
The plasticity of young animals and plants, and 
the extreme changes that may be wrought in their 
forms and habits are truly wonderful. The hu¬ 
man brain itself can be moulded in infancy into 
any shape to suit the whim or taste of a “Flat- 
Head” or a “ Round-Head” Indian. Nor is there a 
single mental or physical function in the human 
system, that may not be either improved or im¬ 
paired by the good or bad influences which may 
be brought to bear upon it. The science of physi¬ 
ology is a noble science. It enables cultivated 
reason to trace results—the products of animal life, 
such as flesh, fat, milk, and wool—back to their 
known causes and elements. 
I can hardly expect to give you even an outline 
of the organization and workings of this complex 
vital machinery. There are, however, a few car¬ 
dinal points in this matter, which I will endeavor 
to make clear and intelligible. One is, that no an¬ 
imal or plant can possibly transmute one simple 
elementary substance into another. If a hen be 
fed on food that is quite destitute of lime, the or¬ 
gans of her system can not form an egg-shell, so 
if a child, calf, or colt, be kept on food that lacks 
phosphate of lime, its bones will be soft and car¬ 
tilaginous. No other minerals can be changed in¬ 
to lime or phosphorus. 
Animal fat is a compound made up of carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen ; and no other simple el¬ 
ements can possibly make it. Lean meat and wool 
contain the same elements, with the addition of 
nitrogen, sulphur, and several other earthy ingre¬ 
dients in minute quantities. 
Knowing that no- animal can create anew one 
panicle of matter, and that each compound prod¬ 
uct has its peculiar constituent elements; know¬ 
ing also how much of those elements is contained 
in any article of food, we can judge of its fitness or 
unfitness to produce either bone, muscle, fat, milk, 
wool, or any other animal product. In other words, 
we can wisely adapt our means to the ends we 
have in view. 
Suppose a farmer had 100. hens in his poultry- 
yard, and he desired them to lay as many and per¬ 
fect eggs as possible. Would it be an unreason¬ 
able prescription to say to him that “you must 
feed them liberally on food which contains not 
only lime, but all the elements of the contents of 
an egg-shell in a concentrated form? Deny not 
the raw material, if you expect the bird to elab¬ 
orate for your table, or for market, a large product 
of this article of human food.” 
Is it anything extraordinary that a race of cows, 
whose mothers for many generations have had 
their milk-forming organs largely developed by 
being fed on food well adapted to that end, should 
secrete far more milk from a given amount of raw 
material, than a race of wild cows, whose lacteal 
glands had been denied all the advantages that re¬ 
sult from quietude, rich pasture, and regular dry 
milking ? 
A sheep consumes several pounds of food daily. 
Of this, at least eight ounces are composed of the 
constituents of wool. Now if the capillary organs 
of this animal transform only two per cent, of these 
elements into wool in 24 hours, then in 100 days 
the sheep will grow one pound of this valuble prod¬ 
uct. This will give a fleece, which will weigh 
3_6_5_ lbs. in 365 days. Is it not practicable so to 
improve the vital action of the wool-forming ma¬ 
chinery of our twenty millions of sheep in this 
country, that this machinery shall transform four 
instead of two per cent, of the raw material of wool 
into that substance ? That this organic machinery 
is perfect no one pretends ; or that, it has already 
been greatly improved, is not denied. The man¬ 
ufacture of wool out of its constituent elements, is 
a branch of science of great importance to the far¬ 
mers of the United States. They possess an in¬ 
exhaustible quantity of the raw material of wool, 
and enjoy every advantage for its profitable produc¬ 
tion. To develop the capillary organs of the 
sheep, the animal should have a warm, or rather 
