The state journal., 1884-09-06
FATTENING STOCK.

The prejudice, now on the high road to
extinction, against precOciOus and SYM
metrical stock, has had for chief reason
that the flesh of young animals was
neither so succulent nor so nutritive as
of old animals. Whether that was i'll or
well-founded, the opinion of the pounds,
shillings and pence farmers was that it
was more profitable to sell Oft fat OK
when two years old than when four; a
sheep at fourteen months, and pig at
eight. 1t has been demonstrated that
the quantity of meat produced by stock
delivered to the butcher at the above
precOciOus ages costs exactly one half
less expense. An OK sold off at two years
instead of at four implies double profit
in point Of meat realized for the market,
the return of the capital invested in half
less time, the allowing of the sheds to
be occupied with double the number of
stock without any augmented demand on
food.
1t has been alleged that an OK aged
four years yields a greater or heavier
quantity of flesh than an,oX of two years.
This requires explanation. 1t is now as
certained that an OK, from its birth till it
is two years Of age, makes as much flesh
as an animal of tour years, provided the
young OK be fed carefully, plentifully and
methodically that is to say, there shall be
no starvation or short commons stoppages
in the rations. Now, it is law of ply
siological growth that the time lost by in
sufficient feeding or the absence ofsanitary
care in the development of animals can
never be recovered. In the first two
years of Its growth, the assimilation of
food and the formation of the tissues OF an
OK proceed the most actively. No food
is thus lost in the system; all is applied to
build up; nothing is demanded for re-
pairs. At two years, then, the period of
development terminates, and hencefOr-
ward the animal has not only to feed to
keep up lite, but to repair the daily waste
Of the tissues. Thus, more food is neces-
sary to produce a pound of flesh when,
after two years, the tissues have to be re-
stored, then before and up to that period,
when all vitality is not repairing wastes,
but developing growth.
Equally erroneous is the impression
that an animal must be developed fully
before it can be fattened. This is quite
true in the case of unameliorated races, so
difficult to develop, so hard to feed, so
bony and so skinny. But the wide awake
farmer does not seek such animals for
fattening ends; he tries to obtain a pre-.
cocious race, whether in cattle, sheep, or
pigs: animals well formed, of agreeable
conformation, pleasing to the eye, and so
more certain to prove satisfactory for the
purse As to the alleged inferiority i'll
quality of young over aged meat, ask any
Judge at cattle show; note their awards;
inquire Of any butcher if a well-bred,
well fed OK at two years has not q more
agreeable flesh, OF, if you like, as good as
the ordinary animal aged four; if sheep,
similarly cured, aged one year, does not
produce meat as highly relished as the
animal double its age. In thus patroniz-
ing younger stock capital is doubled, and
profits increased 100 per cent without any
augmentation under the heads of food or
abor,-FrencA Correspondent Of ~ b.
Fdrm6r.