The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stockCameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Science
The Stock-Feeder's Manual: the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stock
Cameron, Charles Alexander, Sir
Feeds; Livestock
improvement of his stock, and to discover more economical methods of
feeding them. There is still much to be learned relative to the precise
nutritive values of the various feeding stuffs. The proper modes of
cooking, or otherwise preparing, food, are still to be satisfactorily
determined; and there are many very important questions in relation to
the breeding of stock yet unanswered.
It is but fair to admit that the farmer is earnestly endeavouring to
improve his art, and that he is willing, nay anxious, to obtain the
co-operation of scientific men, in order to increase his knowledge of
the theory as well as the practice of his ancient calling. Indeed, he
not only admits the utility of science in agriculture, but often places
an undue degree of value upon the theories of the chemist, of the
botanist, and of the geologist. This is encouraging to the men of
science; but, on the other hand, they must admit that by far the greater
portion of the sum of human knowledge has been derived from the
experience and observation of men utterly unacquainted with science, in
the ordinary signification of that term. This portion of our knowledge
is also, in its practical application, the most valuable. In the most
important branch of industry--agriculture--the labors of the purely
scientific man have as yet borne but scant fruit; whilst the unaided
efforts of the husbandman have reclaimed from sterility extensive
tracts, and caused them to "blossom as the rose." That practical men
should have done so much, and scientific men so little, for agriculture,
may easily be explained. Countless millions of men, during many
thousands of years, have incessantly been occupied in improving the
processes of mechanical agriculture, which, as an _art_, has
consequently been brought to a high degree of perfection: but scientific
agriculture is a creation of almost our own time, and the number of its
cultivators is, and always has been, very small; all its theories cannot,
therefore, justly claim that degree of confidence which, as a rule, is
only reposed in the opinions founded on the experience of practical
workers in the field and in the feeding-house. Still, the farmer has
derived a great amount of useful information from the chemist and
physiologist; and they alone can explain to him the causes of the
various phenomena which the different branches of his art present. There
was a time when it was the fashion of the man of science to look down
with contempt, from the lofty pedestal on which he placed himself, upon
the lessons of practical experience read to him by the cultivator of the
soil; whilst at the same time the farmer treated as foolish visionaries
those who applied the teachings of science to the improvement of their
art. But this time has happily passed away. The scientific man no longer
despises the knowledge of the mere farmers, but turns to good account
the information derivable from their experience; whilst the farmer, on
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