must after a time render it nauseous. For this reason hay should lie as short a time as possible in lofts, but when practicable be given direct from the rick. Poultry of different kinds are often crowded together without any regard to the comfort of the particular kinds by attending to their peculiarities, such as the web feet of the duck tribe, the proper size of roosting sticks for the toed feet of the other tribes. Even the crowing of the cock must cause some degree of irritation, and consequently impede health and fattening by disturbing the repose of quiet fowls, such as the turkey or goose. Various other instances will occur to a reflecting mind; and surely it must be a duty as agreeable as it is conducive to our own interest to promote as much as possible the comfort of those animals whose lives are shortly to be sacrificed for ours.

2036. Health. A good state of health will, in general, be the result of the mode of feeding and treatment which we have described; but in proportion as our treatment, either of ourselves or other animals, is refined and artificial, in the same proportion are the functions of nature liable to derangement or interruption from atmospherical changes, and various accidental causes. When this takes place recourse must be had to art for relief. This is an obvious, natural, and reasonable practice; though some contend that as every disease is only an effort of nature to relieve the being from some evil, it ought to be left to itself. To treat animals when in health artificially, and the moment when they become diseased to abandon them to nature, is a proposition so incongruous and absurd, that one would suppose it would be rejected by the common sense of mankind. There are, however, some solitary instances of medical men having adopted this opinion; but the melancholy result of their acting on it in the human species, as well as its utter rejection by all rational professors, and men in general, has reduced it to its intrinsic value. There may be much of quackery in medicine; and unquestionably there is a great deal in the art as applied to the brute creation by common practitioners; but to reject the medical art altogether, becomes on the other hand a species of quackery just as despisable as the other, and not less dangerous; for it cannot be much better for a patient to be left to die through neglect, than to be killed by over-much care.

2037. Farriery, as applied to cattle and sheep, is a department of medicine in which perhaps greater ignorance prevails than in any other. The subject as applied to horses has, since the establishment of veterinary schools in this country, and in France, become better understood; but the pupils from these establishments are so thinly scattered, that as Laurence (veterinary surgeon, and author of a Treatise on Horses) observes, it were desirable that country surgeons should in their different localities give instructions to the empirical local practitioners in the country, and to intelligent bailiffs; and that gentlemen of property might have such a sense of their own interest as to call in a surgeon in all cases of the least difficulty. All that we can here do is to repeat our advice of studying the art of prevention rather than of cure; to suggest that, in general, an analogy subsists between the constitution and diseases of the human and brute creation; to avoid recipes and specific cures, rarely to bleed animals, unless by regular advice; and to confine as much as possible the operations of cow doctors and smiths to giving warm drinks, gentle purges, and glysters, which can seldom do any harm. Proprietors who can afford to employ intelligent bailiffs, or rather who give such men considerable salaries, should ascertain previously to hiring them, by means of general questions, or by reference to a professor, whether they know any thing of the subject. By thus creating a demand for this species of knowledge, it would soon be produced in abund

ance.

SECT. III. Of Feeding for Extraordinary Purposes.

2038. The extraordinary purposes of feeding may comprehend, promoting the growth, naturity, or obesity of particular parts of the body; promoting the produce of milk or eggs; or, for fitting an animal for hard labor or long journeys, fasting, and other privations.

2039. Feeding for extraordinary purposes, such as promoting the growth of the liver in geese; the heart in turkeys; producing excessively fat poultry, &c. seems to us utterly unjustifiable on principles of humanity, and unworthy of enlightened men. The practice of pulling out the animal's eyes, nailing them to the spot, and cramming or forcing the food down their throats, is surely as repugnant to good taste and feeling, as the food so produced must be tasteless and unwholesome. Putting out the eyes of certain singing birds to improve their voice; and some practices in the rearing of game cocks, and fancy pigeons, (at least the two first) seem equally reprehensible.

2040. The fattening of fowls for the London market is a considerable branch of rural ecomony in some convenient situations. "They are put up in a dark place, and crammed with a paste made of barley meal, mutton suet, and some treacle or coarse sugar, mixed with milk, and are found to be completely ripe in a fortnight. If kept longer, the fever that is induced by this continued state of repletion renders them red and unsaleable, and frequently kills them." (Agricultural Report of Berkshire, by William Mavor, L.L.D. 10. London, 1813.) But fowls brought to this state of artificial obesity are never so well flavored in

the flesh, and probably not so salubrious as those of the same species, fattened in a more natural way. The great secret of having fine pullets is cleanliness, and high keeping with the best corn.

2041. The process followed in different parts of France to enlarge the liver, is described at length by Sonnini (Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, art. Oie.); "The object is to cause the whole vital forces to be determined towards this part of the animal, by giving it a kind of hepatic cachexy. In Alsace, the individual buys a lean goose, which he shuts up in a small box, so tight that it cannot turn in it. The bottom is furnished with a wide grating of rods, for the passage of the dung. In the fore part there is a hole for the head, and below it a small trough is kept always full of water, in which some pieces of wood charcoal are left to steep. A bushel of maize is sufficient to feed it during a month, at the end of which time the goose is sufficiently fattened. A thirtieth part is soaked in water each night, and crammed down its throat next day, morning and evening. The rest of the time it drinks and guzzles in the water. Towards the 22d day, they mix with the maize some poppy oil, and, at the end of the month, it is known by a lump of fat under each wing, or rather by the difficulty of breathing, that it is time to kill it, otherwise it will die of fat. The liver is then found weighing one or two pounds, and, besides, the animal is excellent for the table, and furnishes, during its roasting, from three to five pounds of fat, which is used in the cooking of vegetables. Of six geese, there are commonly only four (and these are the youngest) which answer the expectation of the fattener. They are kept in a cellar, or place with little light.

2042. The Roman epicures, who prized the livers of geese, had already observed, that darkness was favorable to this kind of education, no doubt, because it prevents all distraction, and directs the whole powers towards the digestive organs. The want of motion, and the difficulty of respiration, may be also taken into consideration; the first by diminishing the waste of the system, and both by retarding the circulation in the vena portarum, of which the blood ought to become hydrogenated, in proportion as its carbon unites itself to the oxygen, which that liquid absorbs. This favors the formation of the oily juice, which, after having filled the cellular system of the body, enters into the biliary system and substance of the liver, and gives it that fatness and size which is so delightful to the palates of true gourmands. The liver thus only becomes enlarged consecutively, and the difficulty of respiration does not appear till the end, when its size prevents the action of the diaphragm. The leanness of geese subjected to this treatment is often mentioned; but it can only occur in those whose eyes are put out, and feet nailed down to a board, as the consequence of this barbarous treatment. Among a hundred fatteners, there are scarcely two who adopt this practice, and even these do not put out their eyes till a day or two before they are killed. And, therefore, the geese of Alsace, which are free from these cruel operations, acquire a prodigious fatness, which may be called an oleaginous dropsy, the effect of a general atony of the absorbents, caused by want of exercise, combined with succulent food, crammed down their throats, and in an under oxygenated atmosphere." (Encyc. Brit. Sup. art. Food.)

2043. Early lamb. As an instance of both breeding and feeding for extraordinary purposes, we may mention the practice of those farmers who furnish the tables of the wealthy with lamb, at almost every season of the year, by selecting certain breeds of sheep, such as the Dorsetshire, which lamb very early, or by treating them in such a way as to cause the female to come in heat at an unnatural time. In this way, lamb is procured as an article of luxury, as early as November and December; and, on the contrary, by keeping the ewe on a cold and poor hilly pasture, the lambing season is retarded, and lamb furnished in September and October.

2044. Feeding for promoting the produce of milk or eggs. That which in plants or animals is produced for particular purposes in nature, may, by certain modes of treatment, be rendered, for a time, a habit in the plant or animal, without reference to its natural end. Thus in many cases annual plants may be rendered perennial by continually pinching off their flowers as they appear; and animals which give milk or lay eggs, may be made to produce both for a much longer time than is natural to them, by creating a demand in their constitutions for these articles by frequent and regular milkings, and by taking away every egg as soon as produced; and then furnishing the constitution with the means of supplying this demand by appropriate food, —by rich liquid food, in the case of milking animals- and by dry, stimulating, and nourishing food, in the case of poultry.

2045. Feeding to fit animals for hard labor, or long journeys. It seems agreed on, that dry rich food is the best for this purpose; and that very much depends on rubbing, cleaning, and warmth, in the intervals between labor and rest, in order to maintain something of the increased circulation; and, in short, to lessen the influence of the transition from the one to the other. The quantity of water given should never be considerable; at least in cold countries and seasons. (See Horse.)

SECT. IV. Of the Modes of killing Animals.

2046. The mode of killing animals has considerable effect on the flesh of the animal. Most of those slaughtered for food are either bled to death or are bled profusely immediately after being deprived of life in some other way. The common mode of killing cattle in this kingdom is, by striking them on the forehead with a pole-axe, and then cutting their throats to bleed them. But this method is cruel and not free from danger. The animal is not always brought down by the first blow, and the repetition is difficult and uncertain, and if the animal be not very well secured, accidents may happen. Lord Somerville (General Survey of the Agriculture of Shropshire, by Joseph Plymley, M. A. 8vo. London, 1803, p. 243.), therefore, endeavored to introduce the method of pithing or laying cattle, by dividing the spinal marrow above the origin of the phrenic nerves, as is commonly practised in Barbary, Spain, Portugal, Jamaica, and in some parts of England; and Jackson says, that the "best method of killing a bullock, is by thrusting a sharp-pointed knife into the spinal marrow, when the bullock will immediately fall without any struggle, then cut the arteries about the heart." (Reflections on the Commerce of the Mediterranean, by John Jackson, Esq. F.S.A. 8vo. London, 1804, p. 91.) Although the operation of pithing is not so difficult but it may, with some practice, be performed with tolerable certainty; and although Lord Somerville took a man with him to Portugal to be instructed in the method, and made it a condition that the prize cattle at his exhibitions should be pithed instead of being knocked down, still pithing is not becoming general in Britain. This may be partly owing to prejudice; but we have been told that the flesh of the cattle killed in this way in Portugal is very dark, and becomes soon putrid, probably from the animal not bleeding well, in consequence of the action of the heart being interrupted before the vessels of the neck are divided. It therefore seems preferable to bleed the animal to death directly, as is practised by the Jew butchers.

2047. Du Gard's observations on pithing, deserve attention. This gentleman, a surgeon of the Shrewsbury Infirmary, after mature consideration, is against the practice, as causing more pain than it is intended to avoid. He says, "Pain and action are so generally joined, that we measure the degree of pain by the loudness of the cries, and violence of the consequent exertion; and therefore conclude, on seeing two animals killed, that the one which makes scarcely a struggle, though it may continue to breathe, suffers less than that which is more violently convulsed, and struggles till life is exhausted. It appears, however, that there may be acute pain without exertion, perhaps as certainly as there is action without pain; even distortions that at the first glance would seem to proceed from pain, are not always really accompanied with sensation. To constitute pain there must be a communication between the injured organ and the brain."

2048. In the old method of slaughtering, a concussion of the brain takes place, and therefore the power of feeling is destroyed. The animal drops, and although convulsions take place generally longer and more viclent than when the spinal marrow is divided, yet there is, I think, reason to believe that the animal suffers less pain. The immediate consequence of the blow is the dilatation of the pupil of the eye, without any expression of consciousness or fear on the approach of the hand.

2019. From all these circumstances, Du Gard concludes that the new method of slaughtering cattle is more painful than the old. The puncture of the medulla spinalis does not destroy feeling, though it renders the boty quiescent, and in this state the animal both endures pain at the punctured part, and suffers, as it were, a second death, from the pain and faintness from loss of blood in cutting the throat, which is practised in both methods. Everard, Home, in a valuable paper (Shrew. Rep. p. 250.) has suggested a mode of performing the operation, which would answer completely, could we be sure of having operators sufficiently skilful; but we may the less regret the difficulty of getting new modes established when we thus see the superiority of an old custom under very improbable circumstances; and if well meant reformers wanted any additional motives to care and circumspection, a very forcible one is furnished in the instance of the time and trouble taken to introduce this operation, and which, as it has been hitherto practised, is the very reverse of what was intended.

2050. Jewish modes. The Mosaic law so strictly prohibits the eating of blood, that the Talmud contains a body of regulations concerning the killing of animals; and the Jews, as a point of religion, will not eat the flesh of any animal not killed by a butcher of their own persuasion. Their method is to tie all the four feet of the animal together, bring it to the ground, and, turning its head back, to cut the throat at once down to the bone, with a long, very sharp, but not pointed knife, dividing all the large vessels of the neck. In this way the blood is discharged quickly and completely. The effect is indeed said to be so obvious, that some Christians will eat no meat but what has been killed by a Jew butcher. Calves, pigs, sheep, and lambs, are all killed by dividing at once the large vessels of the neck.

2051. Animals which are killed by accident, as by being drowned, hanged, or frozen, or by a fall, or ravenous animal, are not absolutely unwholesome. Indeed, they only differ from those killed methodically in not being bled, which is also the case with animals that are snared, and in those killed by hounds. Animals which die a natural death should never be eaten, as those are undeniable instances of disease, and even death being the consequence.

2052. Animals frequently undergo some preparation before they are killed. They are

commonly kept without food for some time, as if killed with full stomachs their flesh is considered not to keep well. Oxen are commonly fasted two or three days, smaller animals a day, but it is evident that the practice must not be carried too far, as the opposite effect will be produced by the animal falling off or getting feverish. Dr. Lister has stated that nothing contributes more to the whiteness and tenderness of the flesh of calves than often bleeding them,, by which the coloring matter of the blood is exhausted, and nothing but colorless serum remains. A much more cruel method of preparation for slaughter used to be practised, though now much less frequently, in regard to the bull. By some ancient municipal laws, no butcher was allowed to expose any bull beef for sale unless it had been previously baited. The reason of this regulation probably was, that baiting had the effect of rendering the flesh or muscular fibre much more tender; for it is a universal law of the animal economy that, when animals have undergone excessive fatigue immediately before death, or have suffered from a lingering death, their flesh, though it becomes sooner ridged, also becomes sooner tender than when suddenly deprived of life in a state of health. The flesh of hunted animals also is soon tender and soon spoils (Recherches de Physiologie et de Chimie Pathologique, par. P. N. Nysten. 8vo. Paris, 1811.); and it is upon this principle only, that the quality of pig's flesh could be improved by the horrid cruelty, said to be practised by the Germans, of whipping the animal to death.

BOOK III.

OF THE STUDY OF THE MINERAL KINGDOM AND THE ATMOSPHERE, WITH REFERENCE

TO AGRICULTURE.

2053. The nature of the vegetable and animal kingdom having undergone discussion, the next step in the study of the science of agriculture is to enquire into the composition and nature of material bodies, and the laws of their changes. The earthy matters which compose the surface of the earth, the air and light of the atmosphere, the water precipitated from it, the heat or cold produced by the alternation of day and night, and by chemical composition and resolution, include all the elements concerned in vegetation. These elements have all been casually brought into notice in the study of the vegetable kingdom; but we shall now examine more minutely their properties, in so far as they are connected with cultivation. To study them completely, reference must be had to systems of chemistry and natural philosophy, of which those of Dr. Thomson (System of Chemistry,) and Dr. Young, (Lectures on Natural Philosophy,) may be especially recommended.

СНАР. І.
Of Earths and Soils.

2054. Earths are the productions of the rocks which are exposed on the surface of the globe, and soils are earths mixed with more or less of the decomposed organised matter afforded by dead plants and animals. Earths and soils, therefore, must be as various as the rocks which produce them, and hence to understand their nature and formation it is necessary to begin by considering the geological structure of the territorial surface, and the manner in which earths and soils are produced. We shall next consider in succession the Nomenclature, Quality, Use, and Improvement of Soils.

SECT. I. Of the Geological Structure of the Globe and the Formation of Earths and Soils. 2055. The crust, or under surface of the earth, is considered by geologists as presenting four distinct series of rocky substances; the first, supposed to be coeval with the world, are called primitive, and consist chiefly of granite and marble, below which man has not yet penetrated. The second series, called by the Wernerians transition-rocks, are of more recent formation, and seem to have resulted from some great catastrophe, (probably that to which history gives the name of deluge,) tearing up and modifying the former order of things. Clay-slate is one of the principal rocks of this class, and next limestone, sandstone, and trap or whinstone. The third series are called secondary rocks, and seem to owe their formation to partial or local revolutions, as indicated by their comparatively soft or fragile structure, superincumbent situation, and nearly horizontal position. They are chiefly limestones, sandstones, and conglomerations of fragments of other rocks, as plum-pudding-stone, &c. and appear rather as mechanical deposits from water than as chemical compounds from fusion or solution. A fourth stratum consists of alluvial or earthy depositions from water, in the form chiefly of immense beds of clays, marls, or sands These strata are far from being regular in any one circumstance; sometimes one

or more of the strata are wanting, at other times the order of their disposition seems partially inverted; their continuity of surface is continually interrupted, so that a section of the earth almost every where exhibits only confusion and disorder to persons who have not made geology more or less their study. 2056. The situation of the mineral productions of England, is thus given by Bakewell. From the western side of the county of Dorset, a waving line to Scarborough (fig. 244. a, a) will part off, towards the

German ocean, the chalk, calcareous sandstone, and other secondary strata or alluvial earths, in which no beds of workable coal or metallic veins occur. On the coast of Lincolnshire, and part of Yorkshire, there is a subterraneous forest (b) about seventeen feet under the present high water mark, and which seems to have extended eastward in the sea to a considerable distance. West of the line between Scarborough and Hull, the county is composed of secondary strata of different kinds, in many parts of which are beds of ironstone and coal. This district is bounded on the north by mountains of metalliferous_limestone, which terminate in Derbyshire, and extend in the west to the mountains of Wales and Devonshire (c, c, c, c). No metallic veins are found east of this line (c, c, c, c) in any part of England. Along the western side of the island the primary and transition mountains are situated, in which metallic ores occur. They constitute the alpine parts of England, extending from Cornwall and Devonshire, through Wales, into the north-west parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and through Westmoreland and Cumberland, and from thence to the northern part of Scotland. All the rock salt and brine springs are situated in a line extending from the neighborhood of Nantwich nearly to Stow-on-the-Wold (ee). See Bakewell's Geology, page 13; and, for more particular details, Smith's, or Greenough's Map of England; and also Smith's very valuable County Geological Maps.

9057. The succession of alluvial, secondary, transition, and primary strata, in England, has been illus trated by Professor Brande (Outlines of Geology) by two sections, supposed to be taken through them. The first section (fig. 245.) commences with the blue clay of London (1), and proceeding westward through the counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire, terminates at the Land's