Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-10-18
QUALITY OF MEATS, AND I'M
PRoVEMENT OF STOCK.

OMlng 10 tue marked lnulNlduanty Wnlcn
man exhibits in the selection Of his food. aud
to the intimate relationship subsisting be-
tween food and the organism it nourishes, it is
impossible to arrange the alimenta substance
es in the strict order of their nutritive values.
You can bring horse to the water but you
cannot compel him to drink it; you can
swallow any kind of food you please, but you
cannot force your stomach to digest it, 1t
is therefore vain to tell man that a certain
kind Of food is shown by chemical analysis
to be nutritious, when his stomach tells him
uumistakably that it is poisonous, and refuses
to digest 1t. There are persons who relish
and readily digest fat pork, aud yet they can
not eat a single egg with impunity; others
enjoy and easily assimilate eggs, but their
stomachs cannot tolerate a particle of fat.
Every day We see exempl6ed the truth of the
proyerb that zone mans meat is another
mans poison"
The enormous and rapidly increasing de-
markets of these days, has reacted in re-
markablo manner upon the nature Of the ani-
mails that supply it. Formerly the animals
that furnished pork. mutton and beef, were
allowed to attain the age of three years old
aud upwards before they were considered to
be "ripe" for the butcher; but now sheep and
pigs are perfectly matared at the early age
ofone year and two-yearold oxen furnish
large quota of our roast beef The so-called
improvement Of stock is simply the forcing of
them into an unnatural degree Of fatness at
+ IN early age; and this end is attained by
dcxterOus selection and crossing of breeds, by
avoidance of cold, by diminishing as much as
possible their muscular activity, and lastly,
aud chiefly, by over-feeding them with con-
centrated ailments.
Every one knows that man so obese as to
be unable to walk cannot be in n healthy
state; yet many feeders of stock look upon
the monstrous fat bulls and cows of fair prize
celebrity as normal types Of the bovine tribe.
1t requires but little argument to refute so
fallacious a notion. No doubt it is desira-
bic to encourage the breeding of those varie-
ties Of animals which exhibit the greatest dis
position to fatten, and to arrive early at ma
turity but the forcing Of individual animals
into an unnatural state of obesity, except for
purely experimental puposes, is a practice
which cannot be too strongly deprecated. II
breeders contented themselves with handing
over to the butcher their huge living blocks
Of fat, the matter would not, perhaps be very
serious, but unfortunately it is too Otter
the practice to turn them to account as sirei
aud dams, Were we to judge at cattl,
show, We certainly should disqualify every
extremely fat animals entered for competi
tion amongst the breeding stock. Unles
, parents are healthy and vigorous their prog
eny are almost certain to be unhealthy an,
weakly and it is inconceivable that an ex
tremely obese bull, and an unnaturally ia
COW, could be the prOgenitors of healthy of
spring. We should by all means improv
our live stock but we should be careful no
t to overdo the thing.
y five must have ponderous bulls and COW
h at our fat cattle exhibitions, let US condemn
o to speedy mmolation those unhappy victim
r to most absurd fashion but in the name {
g common sense let us leave the perpetuatio
g of the species to Individuals ia a normal stat,
9 whose muscles are not replaced by fat, who's
d hearts are not hypertrophied, and who:
y lungs are capable of effectively performin
y the function Of respiration.
IS There is conclusive evidence to prove thu
n one of the effects Of the present mode of ia
% tening beasts is disease Of the internal o
1t gans of the animal but it is by no meal
Ie certain that the flesh Of those diseased an
Il mails is unwholesome as food. The flesh
Of an oyer-iattened animal differs from that
7 lean, or moderately fat one. in coutainir
a. an exceedingly high proportion of fat but