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Nila 1 
VOL. XLVI NO. 1972. 
NEW YORK. NOVEMBER 12, 1S87 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER TEAK. 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, In tlic year, 1S87, 6y the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
where the transportation of bulky products is 
very costly, it is the principal business of the 
farmer to feed his heavy products, chiefly 
corn, to animals for the purpose of fattening 
them for the butcher, thus saving the cost of 
transporting four-fifths of the weight of his 
grain. For if 50 pounds of corn will make 
from 10 to 15 pounds of fat, when fed to pigs, 
the farmer who thus feeds his corn gets it to 
rrarket for oue-flfth or one-fourth of the cost 
of shipping the corn and, besides, he usually 
gets extra pay for the labor of feeding in the 
enhanced value aud greater salability of the 
pork. It is the same wit hall kinds of produce 
and all farm animal*, ami the natural desire 
and greatest economy with farmers are to feed 
their produce to animals for the advantage of 
sugar, starch and gum. aud the other fat. 
The former is needed to provide for the waste 
caused by respiration and to maintain the 
animal beat; and this kind of food is con¬ 
sumed in the lungs by combination with 
oxygen breathed in with the atmosphere, and 
undergoes actual combustion, producing heat 
aud carbonic acid. Carbon and oxygen are 
united in the animal in precisely the same 
manner, but with less intense heat, as in a 
lire; vital heat of the animal is maintained 
aud carbonic acid is given off—breathed out— 
from the luugs. The latter kind consists of 
fat which exists ready formed in the food, as 
oil in the form of globules in the cellular 
tissue and as wax on the covering of the seeds, 
as in the glossy coaiiug of corn, which is 
as has been previously explained, every chem¬ 
ical change of food in an animal is a burden 
upon the digestive and nutritive fuuctions, the 
animal system is severely taxed, and the fat¬ 
tening process in the end produces disease. 
Thus an animal fed upon corn changes some 
of the carbon of the starch into carbouic acid 
first, and thus supplies the required vital 
warmth, then, secondly, it changes the starch 
into sugar, and this sugar is finally changed 
into fat—a somewhat roundabout and expen¬ 
sive process. The fat, in the corn is separated 
from the cellular substance by the processes of 
mastication aud digestion and is formed into 
an emulsion, which is a milky or creamy fluid 
in which the fat exists m small globules, and 
this emulsion, passing into the intestines, is 
deprived of its fat 
by the absorbing 
membrane which 
is coated with nu- 
merous very small 
pores or “villi,” 
very much in ap- 
i. ; ' njjfc pearance like the 
fibers which form 
the surface of vel¬ 
vet <>r plush, and 
which take from 
the food, reduced 
to a thin, milky 
appearing liquid, 
\ these minute glo- 
bulesof fat that are 
separated from the 
food. It is because 
this process of di- 
inure of force to 
effect it. that one 
pound of fat goes as 
iNyPs&l tar iu tbe fattening 
l 1 °f au annual as 
|§SqhR1&. w & two-and-o n e-half 
pounds of starch, 
~■ sugar or gum. 
^.4 .' It is worth while 
' just here to consid- 
Y i&rT v9HhEk& !7iV. er the office of the 
- TuElfe albuoiinoids, the 
-j Mm * caseine, albumen, 
noR® 1, fibrin or Iegumin 
£’j ■ ' of the food, given 
• the first in milk,the 
\ tJP'W next two in various 
k ~ ' 1 ; vegetable and ani- 
• j ninl foods, aud the 
' last in peas and 
^ beaus, and other 
.•/ leguminous vege¬ 
tables. In the pro¬ 
cess of fattening 
every motion of the 
body, the expan- 
? CZ&ccJ sion of the lungs, 
the movements of 
the limbs and jaws, 
the constant pulsa¬ 
tions of the heart, and the action of the stomach 
and intestines, all these are accompanied by 
the destruction of a certain portion of the fib¬ 
rous muscular tissue commouly called flesh. 
This used up tissue is oxidyzed; its carbon is 
changed iuto carbonic acid; its hydrogen is 
converted into water, and the nitrogen into 
some compound of ammonia which, with the 
water, passes off in the form of urea through 
the kidneys. Thus during the process of fat¬ 
tening the material for the repair of the mus¬ 
cles must be provided, otherwise flesh is actual¬ 
ly lost or deteriorates very much in character 
while the fat is accumulating. Then if only 
carbonaceous food is given to a fattening an- 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
THREE-QUARTERS HEREFORD STEER, RURAL 
. vyr~ HE Hereford men claim for 
their favorites unsurpassed ex- 
cellence for beef production aud 
unequnled quality as grazers. 
It is also claimed that their 
thick coats and hardy constltu- 
tions enable them, aud still 
® v - more their offspring by native 
stock, to withstand the rigors of western win¬ 
ters without shelter better than most, if not 
all. other breeds. 
These bei"g the 
properties most re¬ 
quired on the ran¬ 
ges, a great de¬ 
mand for Hereford 
bulls, to be crossed 
on thft “n a t i v e” 
stock of the plains * r 
and prairies, has 
prevailed of late 
years, and the re¬ 
sults have been gen¬ 
erally satisfactory. 
The Hereford 
makes no claim as -g. 
a dairy breed; but ■*— 
even iu the older 
States where cattle 
are farm-fed.Here¬ 
ford bulls are in de- 
mand for grading 
up native stock or 
for crossing on ii- 7 
other pure breeds ^ " 
or their grade pro¬ 
geny where beef 
production is the 
object iu view, and , ; 
the remarkable suc¬ 
cess of Hereford 
grades aud crosses - 
as prize-winners at 
the great cattle . _ 
shows indicates 
their excellence for 
this purpose. At 
Fig. 452 is shown a ^ • i 
fine specimen of ..“i-tT *Y 
this kind in the 
three-quarter Her¬ 
eford steer, Rural. ** 
He was bred on the 
W ,r 
farm of the Illinois v«* r 
U n i ve r si ty at . U 
C h a iu puign, uud, 
Professor Moitow ^ 
writes us, was calv¬ 
ed iu March, 1884. 
Iu November, 1886, 
he weighed 1,590 
pounds, showing a 
gain of 500 pounds 
iu the last, year. He was considered the best in 
quality of the lot raised on the farm and was 
certainly the fattest, though his growth was 
less satisfactory than that of u number of 
others on the farm. A hall-brother, three 
months younger, weighed the same. Iu color 
and form he was a good specimen of the race. 
{‘i&M 
U f£/2/K> 
THREE-QUARTER HEREFORD STEER “RURAL 
the lessened cost of transportation and the 
profit iu the change of food into meat, or fat. 
Au auimal more quickly changes its food 
iuto fat when it is old than when it is young. 
A growing animal adds llesb aud bone to its 
system before uuy fat is laid on, except uuder 
such a high and forcing feeding as is rarely 
profitable, aud the high cost of the fat iu the 
food is thus wasted. As a rule, only mature 
animals, that have made all the bone and 
flesh they will, can be most profitably fed for 
fat, aud then the food needs to be highly car¬ 
bonaceous and rich iu actual fat. Two kinds 
of aliment are needed by fattening animals; 
both are carbonaceous; one should contain 
designed by nature as a protecting coatiu 
for the seed. 
Now r , when any chemical process goes on iu 
the animal system, such as thp couvertion of 
carbon into carbonic acid, or into union with 
hydrogen as a carbohydrate, such as fat, 
force is expended; and when force is expend¬ 
ed some matter is consumed and changed in¬ 
to other forms. Hence, then, when a fatten¬ 
ing animal is fed upon food containing starch, 
sugar, or gum, its vital heat is first main¬ 
tained, aud the carbon of the food thus used 
is changed into carbonic acid and escapes in 
the air; and after this need is supplied, the re¬ 
mainder undergoes conversion iuto fat. But 
FEEDING SUBSTANCES AND FEEDING 
RATIONS. 
HENRY STEWART. 
