The Stock-Feeder's Manual Part 10

At the same time, it must not be understood that all, or even a large proportion of fully matured stock is in a diseased state; though in most of them the vital and muscular powers are undoubtedly exceedingly low.

There is no doubt but that sheep and oxen, from three to five years old, moderately fat, and fairly exercising their locomotive powers, furnish the most savory, and, perhaps, the most nutritious meat: but if such were the only kind of meat in demand, it may be fairly doubted that the supply would be equal to it. The produce of meat in these countries has been rapidly increasing for many years past; and the weight of meat annually supplied from a given area of land is now from 80 to 100 per cent. greater than it furnished thirty or forty years ago. It is chiefly by means of the so-called forcing system that the produce of meat has been so considerably increased. If this system were abandoned, the production would be greatly diminished, and the consequently high price of the article would place it beyond the reach of the ma.s.ses of the population. Besides, it has not been proved that the flesh of the animals brought early to maturity is much inferior, except somewhat in flavor, to the meat of three-year-old beasts. There is, no doubt, plenty of unwholesome meat offered for sale, but it is that of animals which were affected by diseases as likely to attack the young as the old. On the whole, then, we may say of the improved system of fattening stock, that it produces a maximum amount of meat on a given area of land; that the meat so produced is, except in rare cases, perfectly wholesome; that it is capable of supplying the ingredient--fat--which is almost wholly absent from a vegetable diet; and, finally, that it places animal food within the reach of the working cla.s.ses.

_Diseased Meat._--The losses occasioned to stockowners by the diseases of live stock are far greater than is generally supposed. It has been calculated that in the six years ending 1860, the value of the horned stock lost by disease amounted to 25,934,650. Pleuro-pneumonia was the chief cause of these losses. Exclusive of the enormous losses occasioned by the ravages of the rinderpest, the annual loss by disease in live stock in these countries for some years past cannot be much under 6,000,000 sterling.

Whether it is owing to the somewhat abnormal condition under which the domesticated animals are placed, or to causes which operate upon them when in a state of nature, it is certain that they are remarkably p.r.o.ne to disease. It is extremely difficult to get a horse six years old that is not a roarer or a whistler, or "weak on his pins," or in some way or other unsound. Oxen, sheep, and pigs have almost as many maladies afflicting them as human flesh is heir to, notwithstanding the short period of life which they are permitted to enjoy.

It is a very serious question whether or not the flesh of animals that have been killed while they are in a diseased condition is injurious to health. The opinions on this point are conflicting, but the majority of medical men believe that the flesh of diseased animals is not wholesome.

There are certain maladies which obviously render meat unsaleable, by causing a sensible alteration in its quality. For example, blackleg in cattle and measles in the porcine tribe render the flesh of these animals, as a general rule, unmarketable, or nearly so. But there are very serious diseases--often proving rapidly fatal--which, whilst seriously affecting certain internal organs, do not palpably deteriorate the quality of the flesh. In such cases are we to rely upon the evidence of our mere senses in judging of the wholesomeness of the meat? If we find beef possessing a good color and odour, and firm to the touch, and _appearing_ to be in every respect healthy flesh, are we under such circ.u.mstances to take it for granted that it must be healthy? This is a very important question, involving as it does the interests of both the producers and consumers of animal food. If the flesh of all diseased animals be unwholesome, a very large number of oxen now sold whilst laboring under pleuro-pneumonia should not be sent into the market.

This, of course, would be a heavy loss to the stockowner, but a still heavier one to the meat consumer; because, if there were fewer animals for sale, the price of meat would ascend, in obedience to the law of supply and demand. The whole question is, then, well worthy of being considered in the most careful, unbia.s.sed, and scientific manner; for at present it is in a state which is the reverse of being satisfactory.

A large proportion of the animals conducted to the shambles is in a diseased condition. Professor Gamgee estimates it at no less than one-fifth. Dr. Letheby, food a.n.a.lyst to the Corporation of London, condemns weekly about 2,000 pounds weight of flesh; but as his jurisdiction is limited to the "City," which contains a population of only about 114,000, the 2,000 pounds of diseased meat are probably only about 1-30th of the quant.i.ty exposed for sale within the whole area of the metropolis. Making an estimate of the most moderate kind, we may a.s.sume that 30,000 pounds weight of bad meat are weekly offered for sale in London--_three million pounds weight annually_.

Many persons have been affected with dysentery and choleraic symptoms after partaking of butcher's meat of apparently the most healthy kind.

The meat has often been subjected to minute chemical and microscopical examination, but no poison has been discovered. But these cases are becoming so frequent that they are exciting uneasiness, and demand an exhaustive investigation. The unskilful persons who officiate in the capacity of "clerks of the market" and inspectors of meat can only judge of the quality of flesh that is obviously inferior to the eye, nose, or touch; but are there not cases where the flesh may appear to be good, and yet contain some subtle malign principle? It is an ascertained fact that young or "slink" veal very frequently gives rise to diarrhoea, more especially when that disease is epidemic. Dr. Parkes, in his celebrated work on Hygiene, page 162 (second edition), states that "the flesh of the pig sometimes produced diarrhoea--a fact I have had occasion to notice in a regiment in India, and which has often been noticed by others. The flesh is, probably, affected by the unwholesome garbage on which the pig feeds." Mensch.e.l.l states that 44 persons were afflicted with anthrax after eating the flesh of oxen affected with carbuncular fever. Dr. Kesteren, in the _Medical Times_ for March, 1864, mentions a case where twelve persons were affected with choleraic symptoms after the use of pork not obviously diseased. At Newtownards, county of Down, several persons died after eating veal in which no poisonous matter of any kind could be detected. One instance has come under my own notice where a man, two dogs, and a pig died after eating the flesh of an animal killed whilst suffering from splenic apoplexy.

Several butchers have lost their lives in consequence of the blood of diseased animals being allowed to come in contact with abrasions or recently received wounds on their arms. The flesh of over-driven animals is stated by Professor Gamgee to produce a most serious skin disease, although the meat appeared to be perfectly healthy. The Belgian Academy of Medicine has decided that the flesh of animals suffering from carbuncular fever is unwholesome, and its sale in that country is prohibited.

Many persons have died in Germany and a few in England from a disease produced by eating pork containing a small internal parasite termed _trichina spiralis_. I have recently met with a case of _trichiniasis_ in the human subject. The body of the unfortunate person--who had been an inmate of the South Dublin Union Workhouse--was found to contain thousands of the trichinae. In Iceland a large proportion of the population suffers from a parasitic disease traceable to the use of the flesh of sheep and cattle in which flukes abound.

Pleuro-pneumonia is in this country the disease which most frequently affects the ox. It is probable that about 5 per cent. of these animals sold in Dublin are more or less affected by this malady. There are two forms of pleuro-pneumonia--the sporadic, or indigenous, and the foreign, or contagious. It is the latter form which has become the scourge of the ox tribe in this country, though unknown here until the year 1841, when it appeared as an epizootic, and carried off vast numbers of animals.

The contagious pleuro-pneumonia is an extremely severe inflammatory disease, and is produced--not in the same way that common pleuro-pneumonia is, by exposure to excessive cold, &c.--but by a blood poison received from an infected animal. In the congestive stage of the disease there is no structural alteration in the organs of the animal, and if well bled its flesh might (probably) be safely eaten; but when a large portion of the lungs becomes solidified, and rendered incapable of purifying the blood, is it not doubtful, to say the least, that the blood or flesh is perfectly wholesome? The blood, during the life of the animal, is in a state of fermentation; there is extreme fever, and the animal presents all the characteristic symptoms of acute disease. On being killed, the flesh, if the disease be of a fortnight's duration, will usually be extremely dark, but in a less advanced stage of the malady the flesh will generally present a healthy appearance. Is it really so? That is the question which science has to determine. Going upon a broad principle, I can hardly conceive that so serious a disease as pleuro-pneumonia does not injuriously affect the quality of the flesh.

It is no argument to say that thousands consume such flesh, and yet enjoy good health. Millions of people drink water and breathe air that are extremely impure, and yet they do not speedily die. It is one thing to be poisonous, another to be unwholesome. The flesh of animals killed whilst suffering from lung distemper is not directly poisonous, but who can prove that it is not, like bad water, unwholesome?

As a.n.a.lyst to the city of Dublin, I am almost daily called upon to inspect meat suspected to be unwholesome; and I have always condemned as being unfit for human food:--

1. Animals slaughtered at the time of bringing forth their young.

2. Oxen affected with pleuro-pneumonia, when pus is present in the lungs, or the flesh obviously affected; animals suffering from murrain, black-quarter, and the different forms of anthrax.

3. Animals in an anaemic, or wasted condition.

4. Meat in a state of putrefaction.

During the present year about 20,000 pounds weight of meat have been seized and condemned in the city of Dublin.

SECTION II.

MILK.

Milk is a peculiar fluid secreted by the females of all animals belonging to the cla.s.s _Mammalia_; and, being designed for the nourishment of their offspring, contains all the const.i.tuents which enter into the composition of the animal body.

The milk of different animals varies very much in color, taste, and nutritive value. That of the cow is a little heavier than water--its specific gravity being, on the average, about 1030, water being 1000. It is composed of three const.i.tuents--namely, b.u.t.ter, curd, and whey--each of which is also composed of a number of substances. These three const.i.tuents are of unequal weight, or specific gravity, and their separation is the chief process carried on in the dairy. The b.u.t.ter is the lightest and the curd is the heaviest const.i.tuent.

The following table represents the composition of the milk of different animals:--

COMPOSITION OF THE MILK OF DIFFERENT ANIMALS.

1,000 PARTS CONTAIN--

------+---------+--------+------------+--------+-------+-------+------- Specific Gravity, Water. Solid Cheesy Sugar. b.u.t.ter. Mineral or Ingredients. Matter. Matter.

Density. ------+---------+--------+------------+--------+-------+-------+------- Woman 103267 88908 11092 3930 4368 2666 130 Cow 1030 86420 13580 4880 4770 3130 600 Goat 103353 84490 15510 3514 3691 5687 618 Ewe 104098 83232 16768 6978 3943 5131 716 Mare 103374 90430 9570 3335 3276 2436 523 a.s.s 103457 89012 10988 3565 5046 1853 524 b.i.t.c.h 104162 77208 22792 11688 1529 8795 780 ------+---------+--------+------------+--------+-------+-------+-------

Milk examined through a microscope is a colorless fluid, containing a large number of little vesicles, or bags, filled with b.u.t.ter--a mixture of oily and fatty matters. When the milk stands for some time, the globules, being lighter than the other const.i.tuents, ascend to the top, and, mixed with a certain proportion of milk, are removed as cream.

The curd is termed in scientific parlance _casein_, and is in fresh milk in a state of solution--that is to say, is dissolved in milk in the same way that we dissolve sugar in water. When milk becomes sour, either naturally or by the addition of rennet, it can no longer hold casein in solution, and the curd consequently separates. Casein is the substance which forms the basis of cheese. The substance that remains after the removal of the b.u.t.ter and cheese is called _serum_, or whey, and is composed of a sweetish substance termed _sugar of milk_, and certain saline bodies, termed the ash, dissolved in water.

The b.u.t.ter and the sugar of milk are employed in the animal economy in the production of fat, and are what have been styled by physiologists _heat-producers_ and _fat-formers_. The casein resembles the gluten of wheat in composition; it belongs to the cla.s.s of food substances termed _flesh-formers_. The ash, or mineral part of the milk, is chiefly employed in forming the bones of the young animals it is destined to nourish.

The quality of milk is influenced by the quant.i.ty and quality of the food given to the animal. The milk of cows fed on distillery wash, turnip, and mangel tops, coa.r.s.e herbage, and other kinds of inferior food, is always of inferior quality. Hence it is of great importance that dairy stock be kept in good old pastures in summer, and fed on Swedish turnips, mangel-wurtzel, and oil-cake during winter. It is true economy to supply dairy cows with abundance of nutritious food; and it should be constantly borne in mind that the milk from two well-fed cows will give more b.u.t.ter than can be obtained from the produce of three badly-fed animals.

The b.u.t.ter is the const.i.tuent of milk which is most affected by the nature and amount of the animal's food; and b.u.t.ter is precisely the article which is of the greatest importance to the Irish dairy farmer, as the quant.i.ty of cheese prepared in this country is inconsiderable.

When, therefore, it is found that a cow pastured on inferior land, or badly fed in the byre, yields a large supply of milk of a high specific quant.i.ty (which, however, is rarely the case), it must not be concluded that the result is satisfactory; for if such milk be tested by the lactometer it will certainly be found wanting in b.u.t.ter. The average composition of English milk, according to Way, is:--

Water 8702 b.u.t.ter 323 Casein 448 Sugar of milk 467 Ash 060 ------ 10000

In several a.n.a.lyses of milk published by Professor Voelcker, the highest proportion of b.u.t.ter is stated to be 762. In that of cows kept on poor and over-stocked pastures less than 2 per cent. was found. I have examined in my capacity of Food a.n.a.lyst to the City of Dublin several hundred samples of milk, in not one of which have I found the proportion of b.u.t.ter to amount to more than 56 per cent. In no sample did I find a higher per-centage of solid matter than 1315, or (when pure) lower than 1208. The quality of the food of the milch cow exercises a great influence on the quality and yield of her milk. Aliments rich in fat and sugar favor the production of b.u.t.ter, and augment the supply of milk.

Locust-beans, malt, and mola.s.ses are good milk-producing foods; but the chief condition in the production of milk rich in b.u.t.ter is simply that the animals which yield it must be fed with abundance of nutritious food. Nor must it be supposed that the richness of milk is due to the smallness of the yield, for whenever the quality of the secretion is inferior, it is almost certain to be deficient in quant.i.ty. Those cows which give the richest milk, generally yield the largest quant.i.ty.

_Yield of Milk._--According to Boussingault, a cow daily yields on the average 104 parts of milk per 1,000 parts of her weight. Morton, in his "Cyclopaedia of Agriculture," p. 621, states that Mr. Young, a Scotch dairy keeper, obtained 680 gallons per cow per annum. Voelcker found that some common dairy stock gave each of them fifty-two pints of milk per diem, whilst three pedigree cows yielded respectively forty-nine pints.

Professor Wilson gives the following information on this point:--

Our princ.i.p.al dairy breeds are the Ayrs.h.i.+re, the Channel Islands, the Short-horn, the Suffolk, and the Kerry. Some published returns of two dairies of Ayrs.h.i.+re cows give the annual milk produce per cow at 650 and 632 gallons respectively. Three returns of dairies, consisting wholly of Short-horns, show a produce of 540 gallons, 630 gallons, and 765 gallons respectively, or an average of 625 gallons per annum for each cow. In two dairies, where half-bred Short-horns were kept, the yield was 810 and 866 gallons respectively for each cow. In four dairies in Ireland, where pure Kerrys and crosses with Short-horns and Ayrs.h.i.+res were kept, the annual produce per cow was returned at 500 gallons, 600 gallons, 675 gallons, and 740 gallons respectively; or an average, on the four dairies, of 630 gallons per annum for each cow. A dairy of "pure Kerrys" gave an average of 488 gallons per cow, and another of the larger Irish breed gave an average of 583 gallons per head per annum. In the great London dairies, now well-nigh extinguished by the ravages of the cattle disease, these returns are greatly exceeded. The cows kept are large framed Short-horns and Yorks.h.i.+re crosses, which, by good feeding, bring the returns to nearly 1,000 gallons per annum for each cow kept. The custom in these establishments is to dispose of a cow directly her milk falls below two gallons a-day, and buy another in her place.

The following milk return of one of our best managed dairy farms (Frocester Court) shows the relative produce of cows in the successive years of their milking. The first lot was bought in at two-years old; all the others at three years:--

No. of Cows. Year of Milk. Produce per head.

8 1st 317 gals.

15 1st 472 "

14 2nd 353 "

15 3rd 616 "

20 4th 665 "

18 5th 635 "

9 6th 708 "

15 Old 651 "

The maximum reliable milk produce that we have recorded was that of a single cow belonging to the keeper of the gaol at Lewes, the details of which were authenticated by the Board of Agriculture.

In eight consecutive years she gave 9,720 gallons, or at the rate of more than 1,210 gallons per annum. In one year she milked 328 days, and gave 1,230 gallons, which yielded 540 lbs. of b.u.t.ter, or at the rate of 1 lb. of b.u.t.ter to 22-3/4 lb. of milk. In the early part of the present year (1866) a return was published of the produce of a cow in a Vermont (U.S.) dairy, which was stated to have given, in the previous year, a b.u.t.ter yield of 504 lbs., at the rate of 1 lb. of b.u.t.ter to 20 lbs. of milk.[25]

_Preserved Milk._--Various plans have been proposed to render milk more portable, and to preserve it sweet for days and even months. Mr. Borden of Connecticut, United States, prepares a concentrated milk by boiling the fluid down in vacuo, at a temperature under 140 Fahrenheit, mixing the resulting solid with sugar, and rapidly placing the compound in tins, which are then hermetically sealed. It is said that solidified milk prepared by this process remains sweet for many months. In France, solidified and concentrated milk are largely prepared; and it is certain that London and other large towns will yet be supplied with milk rendered portable and more stable, by the removal of a large proportion of its water. In many parts of Ireland pure milk could be bought at from 7d. to 8d. per gallon. I do not despair to see factories established in such places for the manufacture of preserved milk as a subst.i.tute for the dear and impure fluid sold under the name of milk in London and other large cities. It is stated that solidified milk prepared in Switzerland is now sold in London.

SECTION III.

b.u.t.tER.