220 
OXFORD FARMERS’ CLUB. 
LECTURE ON THE VARIETIES OF VEGETABLE FOOD, AND THE REARING 
AND FATTENING OF STOCK. 
By J. C. Nesbit, F.G.S., F.C.S., &c. Principal of the Agricultural 
and Scientific School, Kennington, London. 
Delivered to the Oxford Farmers' Club, in the Town Hall, 
Oxford. 
After some scientific observations embracing the phenomena 
of vegetables as food for animals, and their mode of assimilation 
by the latter to their own nature, &c., the Lecturer went on to 
say:—Well, now, gentlemen, I think we may apply these facts 
to the working of our farms and the fattening of our stock. The 
more your animals are exposed to cold, the greater will be the 
consumption of food required to keep up that temperature which 
is necessary for their existence, before they can lay up the 
smallest portion of food on their bodies in the form of fat. Two 
farmers might consume the same amount of food on their farms, 
one having regard to the temperature, and the other not paying 
any attention to it. In such a case the former would be able to 
keep a larger amount of animals than the latter, because one 
effect of keeping them warm would be that a smaller amount 
of food would be required. I know a case in which this was 
exemplified during the last autumn. A certain number of sheep 
in Dorsetshire were kept under cover, and properly warm ; 
whilst the same number, fed with exactly the same weight of 
food, were folded in the open field. Those which had the re¬ 
quisite degree of warmth gained, 1 think, on the average, 3lbs. 
in weight per week, and the others gained 1 lb. only. Such was 
the difference between two lots of sheep owing to the cause 
which I have stated. Now, at the present time this matter is of 
considerable importance to you. By attention to it, you may 
evidently get from the same amount of food from 1 s. 3 d. to Is. 6d., 
instead of from 5d. to Qd.; and none of you will deny that that 
is an advantage worthy of your consideration. 1 would now 
refer again to the use of fat. There are plenty of instances 
which would serve to illustrate what I have to bring before you 
on that subject. In the hybernating animals nature has pro¬ 
vided a disposition of body by which much of the food which is 
consumed is laid by as a reserve in the form of fat. The bear 
comes out of its den in the spring: during the summer and the 
autumn it lines its body well with fat, and when the winter arrives 
it retires to some den or shelter, where it covers itself up and 
lies cosily during the cold season, without making any more 
