The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-03-24
What Kind OF Mutton is Wanted 7

Our English cousins are the greatest
meat eaters in the world and no meat
is ever too fat to suit their tastes.
When an Englishman goes into
Grill House" he selects the latest
piece of meat to be found and there is
nothing he enjoys more than mutton
chop 30 fat that butter is not required
on the bread, which is the only accom-.
paniment We inherited many of the
notions and tastes from the mother
country and we once had the taste for
this very fat meat. 1t is within the
recollection of the older people when
animals, cattle and sheep, enormously
loaded with fat were paraded through
the streets, covered with gaudy ribbons
and preceded with band and then
killed, the meat selling readily for two
or three prices because it was so ex-
tremely fat. But we have drifted away
from this custom. Our people are no
longer living and working 30 much out
of doors in the cold and wet, no longer
crave 80 much Of the at-producing
foods. Instead of eating the fat of the
meat we eat butter. Where the En-
glsh eat two pounds of fat and no but
ter, we eat two pounds of butter and no
fat. When we go the market we buy
lean meat and the fat is cut off and
thrown into the rendering pot. II by
chance some meat fat comes to our
plates we eat the lean and leave the fat
untasted. We want lean meat and it
is never too lean to suit US. But there
are two kinds OF lean meat. One mere
muscle, tough and dry; the other well
filled with fatty globules and juicy and
tender, and what we want to buy, if we
can.get it, is the juicy kind. To make
sheep. growing profitable then, is to
know the kind of mutton wanted and
then to know how to produce this
quickest and cheapest. Hence the
most important question for the sheep
grower is how to grow lean, tender,
juicy mutton. 1t is we'll settled fact
that the only time when change can
be made in the proportion of lean meat
or muscle on the animal is when it is
growing. When the animal has ar
rived at full growth its muscular devel.
opment is established and cannot be
changed. After that time it is possible
to crowd fat into and among the fbret
of the muscle 30 as to make it show
|
lean meat.
1t is equally we'll settled that by
changing the food of the young animal
the proportion Of muscle can be great,
changed. Also that muscle may b,
made hard, dry, and tough, or lean
tender, and juicy, by the character o
the food given and the amount of exer
else the animal is compelled to take
, 1t is a common, but mistaken, notion
that exercise develops muscle. 1t onl
hardens it, and the muscle which
: hardest, and enables the animal to en-
!. dure most exercise, is the poorest an
! least valuable as human food.
3 Another principle in animal econom
should be considered. That much tn
largest part of all food eaten goes t
support the animals life and add
nothing to its weight or value. This
every day an animal is kept withor
growth its value is lessened by the grat
ual toughening Of the meat by ag'
That growth comes only from the foo
eaten. That, by far, the largest pa
of the food of support goes to keep th
animal warm, and that the greater tn
exposure TO cold, the more food waste
to maintain it's heat.
That exercise not only tougher
muscle, but requires food to furnis
energy.
That growth comes only from foe
eaten and digested in excess of a
these bodily wants.
These points settled, the sheep grow
er should know that it will pay hi
best to 30 feed his ewes as to hay
them drop the healthiest lambs, and
so feed the lambs as to develop til
largest amount of lean meat. To {
keep them as to take the least food fl
support and to make the largest gal
for food eaten. To 30 keep them qui
as to make meat most tender and va
liable.
All these points are of vital impor
ance, but it would make this article tt
long to 60 into them now.
But he who will master and put the
in practice will find no more profitab
branch of farming and will never
heard crying that sheep keeping don