the purpose of heating the
animal's body.

It is only the handiwork of the Creator which is perfect, and no machine
constructed by the skill of man, for the direction of force, can rival
that wondrous heat-producing, force-directing mechanism--the animal
organism. According to Dumas, the combustion of about 2-1/2 lbs. of
carbon in a steam-engine is required to generate sufficient force to
convey a man from the level of the sea to the summit of Mont Blanc; but
a man will ascend the mountain in two days, and burn in his mechanism
only half a pound of carbon. There is no machine in which heat and
force are more completely made available than the animal organism; and
were it not--thanks to the influence of antediluvian sunshine--that
the carbon of fuel in these countries is so very much cheaper than the
carbon of food, there is no doubt but that the cheapest mode of keeping
an animal warm would be to allow it to burn its carbon within its
body. As the matter stands, however, there is no question as to the
advisability of keeping fattening animals in a warm place. If the
temperature of the stall be equal to that of the animal's body there
will be less food consumed in the increase of its fat; because less of
the fat-forming materials will be expended in the production of heat.
In this sense, therefore, heat is an equivalent to food, but only within
certain limits; because heat is developed in large quantity within the
animal body independently of the temperature of the air. There is,
therefore, no object to be attained by having the stalls heated beyond
70 or 80 degrees. Indeed, it is to be questioned whether or not stalls
artificially heated are ever properly ventilated. If they be not, the
health of the animal will suffer, and its appetite--so essential a point
in fattening stock--will become impaired. We may conclude--firstly,
that animals, when fattening, should be kept at a temperature not under
70 degrees nor above 90 degrees Fahrenheit; secondly, that the mode of
heating must be such that there is as little wasteful combustion of fuel
as is possible under the circumstances; and, lastly, that no motives of
economy of fuel should prevent the feeding places from being thoroughly
ventilated.

Stall-feeding is not so extensively carried on in Ireland as it is in
Great Britain. There is a general impression that it does not pay in the
former country; but if such be the case, it is simply owing to the want
of skill on the