, too, of a more concentrated
nature. The practice of feeding animals destined for the shambles
exclusively on roots containing 90 and even 95 per cent. of water, which
once prevailed so generally in this country, is now limited to the
farmsteads of a few old-fashioned feeders; and the necessity for the
admixture of highly-nutritious aliment with the bulky substances which
form the staple food of stock is almost universally recognised.

Of concentrated foods used for fattening stock, none stands higher in
the estimation of the farmer than linseed-cake, although it appears to
me that the price of the article is somewhat too high in relation to
its amount of nutriment, and that corn, if its price be moderate, is
a more economical food. Straw, turnips, and mangels form the bone and
sinew of the animals, and enable them to carry on the vital operations
which are essential to their existence. Oil-cake and similar foods are
supplemental, and contribute directly to the animal's increase, so that
their nutritive value appears to be greater than it really is. If an
animal were fed exclusively upon oil-cake, the greater part of it would
be appropriated to the reparation of the waste of the body, and the rest
would be converted into permanent flesh--the animal's "increase." The
addition of straw would produce a still further increase in the animal's
weight--an increase which would be directly proportionate to the amount
of straw consumed. Thus it will be seen that, whatever the staple food
may be, it will have to sustain the life of the animal, and will be
principally expended for that purpose, whereas the supplemental food
will be chiefly, if not entirely, made use of in increasing the weight
of flesh. To me it appears manifestly incorrect to consider, as feeders
practically do, the value of linseed-cake to be seven or eight times
greater than that of oat-straw, and twenty times greater than that of
roots. Let us assume the case of an animal fed upon roots, straw, and
oil-cake. Seventy-five per cent. of its food, say, is expended in
repairing the waste of its body, and 25 per cent. is stored up in its
increase. Now, if the three kinds of food contributed proportionately
to the reparation of the body and to its increase, the roots and straw
would be found to possess a far higher nutritive value, in relation to
the oil-cake, than is usually ascribed to them.

But it may be asked why straw, if it be relatively a much more
economica