Chapter I: Preface

Some papers on the Chemistry of Food, read before the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland and the Athy Farmers' Club, and a few articles on the Management of Live Stock, published in the _Weekly Agricultural Review_, constitute the basis of this Work. It describes the nature of the food used by the domesticated animals, explains the composition of the animal tissues, and treats generally upon the important subject of nutrition. The most recent analyses of all the kinds of food usually consumed by the animals of the farm are fully stated; and the nutritive values of those substances are in most instances given. Some information is afforded relative to the breeds and breeding of live stock; and a division of the Work is wholly devoted to the consideration of the economic production of "meat, milk, and butter."

Within the last twenty years the processes of chemical analysis have been so much improved, that the composition of organic bodies is now determined with great accuracy. The analyses of foods made from twenty to fifty years ago, possess now but little value. In this Work the analyses of vegetables quoted are chiefly those recently performed by the distinguished Scotch chemist, Dr. Thomas Anderson, and by Dr. Voelcker. The Author believes that in no other Work of moderate size are there so many analyses of food substances given, and ventures to hope that the success of this Work may fully justify the belief that a "handy" book containing such information as that above mentioned, is much required by stock feeders.

_102, Lower Baggot Street, Dublin_,
April, 1868.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION: History of Agriculture--Agricultural Statistics--Imports
of Live Stock

1

PART I. ON THE GROWTH AND COMPOSITION OF ANIMALS.

SECTION I. ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE. Functions of Plants. Animal
Life.--SECTION II. COMPOSITION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES. Elements of
Organic Bodies. Proximate Composition of Organic Substances.--SECTION III.
USE OF FAT IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY. Fatty Food necessary in Cold Climates.
Fat Equivalents.--SECTION IV. RELATION BETWEEN THE COMPOSITION OF AN
ANIMAL AND THAT OF ITS FOOD. Tables of Experimental Results.--SECTION V.
RELATION BETWEEN THE QUANTITY OF FOOD CONSUMED BY AN ANIMAL AND
THE INCREASE OF ITS WEIGHT, OR OF THE AMOUNT OF ITS WORK. Weights
of Foods necessary to sustain a Man's Life for twenty-four hours.
Value of Manure.

8

PART II. ON THE BREEDING AND BREEDS OF STOCK.

SECTION I. THE BREEDING OF STOCK.--SECTION II. THE BREEDS OF STOCK.
The Form of Animals. _Breeds of the Ox._ Shorthorns. Devons.
Herefords. Ayrshires. Polled Cattle. Kyloes. Long-horned.
Kerrys. Alderneys. _Sheep._ The Leicester. Lincoln. Cotswold.
Cheviot. Southdown. Shropshire. Blackfaced. _Breeds of the
Pig._ Berkshire. Yorkshire. _Breeds of the Horse._ Clydesdales.
Suffolk Punch. Hunters and Racers.

47

PART III. ON THE MANAGEMENT OF LIVE STOCK.

SECTION I. THE OX. Breeding Cows. Wintering of Young Stock. Shelter
of Stock. Milch Cows. Stall Feeding. Cost of Maintaining Animals.
Cooking and Bruising Food. Value for Feeding Purposes of various
Foods. Bedding Cattle.--SECTION II. THE SHEEP. Breeding Ewes.
Yeaning. Rearing of Lambs. Sheep Feeding. Sheep Dips.--SECTION III. THE
PIG. Young Pigs. Store Pigs. Fattening Pigs.--SECTION IV. THE HORSE.
Foals. Dietaries for the Horse.

74

PART IV. MEAT, MILK, AND BUTTER.

SECTION I. MEAT. Quality of Meat. Is very Fat Meat Unwholesome?
Diseased Meat.--SECTION II. MILK. Composition of Milk of Different
Animals. Yield of Milk. Preserved Milk.--SECTION III. BUTTER. History
of Butter. Irish Butter. Composition of Butter. The Butter
Manufacture.

112

PART V. ON THE COMPOSITION AND VALUE OF VEGETABLE FOODS.