established prizes for improvements in agricultural cottages. Designs had thus been obtained, many of which had been carried out. Whenever they wished to make the people decent, he argued that they should give them decent dwellings, and they should besides this, give the labourer their sympathy, not merely in pecuniary gifts, but in

kindly words and a fair hearing. He concluded by proposing "The Labouring Classes."

Mr. W. MORRISON, M.P., then gave "The Ladies," after which, on the suggestion of the Chairman, three cheers were given for Messrs. Fowler and Smith, the inventors of steam ploughs.

SHEEP AND SHEPHERDING.

When discussing in a former paper how the fluids of the body are influenced by unwholesome food in illustration of rot, the consideration of two topics-the one, the fatty period of this malady experienced when sheep are first put upon such food; and the other, the restoration of flocks to health when put upon sound herbage-were both postponed to a future occasion. The former of these two topics we shall now proceed to examine, after having taken a general survey of both, to show their relation.

In order to show the collateral relation, so to speak, the two examples bear to one another, and how they harmonize with what was said in the previous article above referred to, we have in the first place to observe that the fatty period of the disease exemplifies the first departure from a healthy state of blood, lymph, and other fluids, to that of an abnomal type, such as was shown to be produced by unwholesome, washy herbage; and, in the second place, we have to show that a return to health is neither more nor less than the reverse of the former-the gradual restoration of the fluids to their normal condition, with the natural performance of their respective functions in the animal economy. There is thus, it will be seen, a very wide difference between the two divisions into which the remainder of the subject thus divides itself. But, although this is manifest, yet in both cases chemical results harmonize with their chemical causes-the bad quality of food on the one hand agreeing with the bad health of a rotten sheep, and the naturally highly-condimental food of the sheep of the Arab in the desert, on the other hand, with its normal state of tonicity of nerve, muscle, and fluids, so essentially necessary for its active mountain habits, and the finely-flavoured and easily-digested meat which it yields for our tables.

"flukes in the liver to get fat" is tenfold more objectionable when examined from a physiological point of view. Whether we take the practice of Bakewell, in illustration of our subject, or that of the Arabs of the Nile of the present day, or both, the sheep, before it is put upon the unwholesome grass, is admitted to be healthy; but the day it begins to eat abundantly of such food, the fatty period of the disease commences, the same in this country as in Egypt. For a time, although heavy and dull, the animal eats heartily, and rapidly increases in weight. Byand-by, however, as the digestive functions gradually give way, a growing prostration of strength is manifested, nerves, muscles, and fluids losing their normal tonicity. But whenever such symptoms begin to manifest themselves, the daily waste upon the body increases more rapidly, or at an accelerated rate, while the consumption of food, on the contrary, decreases: consequently, the animal then begins to lose weight. Bakewell records his experience at this critical period, by informing his readers how he watched it with great anxiety, and sent his rotten sheep to the shambles the moment it began to fail in making progress in weight, or to fall off in its feed. The Arabs do the very same thing, but, unfortunately, have less reason to boast of their success; for they annually lose large numbers of their sheep.

We have here a very plain question in hygiene, the unwholesome character of the food accounting satisfactorily, chemically as well as physiologically, for the peculiar na ture of the disease. In the previous article (No. VIII.) it was shown that the washy food supplied the extra quantity of water to the system; that it also contained an excess of fat-forming element; but that it was deficient of those albuminous, colouring, and condimental properties that give strength, colour, and tonicity to blood, nerve, and muscle. Those elementary substances of which the food is thus deficient, account satisfactorily for those substances of which the fluids and the flesh are deficient; while those substances which the food contains in excess, account for those substances which the fluids and the flesh, including the adipose tissue, contain in excess; and they not only do so as to quantity, but also as to quality, the principal increase of weight consisting of the excess of water that pervades the flesh and crude fatty matter of rotten mutton. The

The accounts found in agricultural works of the fatty period of rot are very meagre and unsatisfactory; while the conduct of Mr. Bakewell and other farmers, who have followed the practice of rotting their sheep purposely to promote the accumulation of flesh and fat more rapidly, is highly discreditable to them in a professional sense. The soundness of the former of these conclusions is too manifest to require any exposition. The latter is almost equally so, for the mutton of sheep thus fed is so unwholesome as to be wholly unfit for human food. In principle the prac-juice of healthy, well-fed mutton is not only rich in colour, tice, if not criminal, is in direct contravention of the spirit of all those statutes recently enacted by the Legislature relative to sanitary improvement in the dietetic economy of the people. Even those who take the most favourable view of Bakewell's objectionable practice, admit that the quality of the mutton thus fed is very inferior both as to colour and flavour, the lean and fat being soft, yellow, and flabby.

If the account given of the nature or diagnosis of this stage of the disease is far from satisfactory, its cause, or attribution to fluke in the liver, is tenfold more so. The uneducated and unphilosophical mind, it is true,is fond of the marvellous. But, although such an apology may be pleaded in behalf of our unsophisticated ancestors, it cannot be fairly received in justification of the liver-fluke doctrines of our modern veterinarians; for the chemical changes which we see exemplified in the extra quantity and deteriorated quality of the mutton can only be accounted for by chemical causes capable of producing them. And this is more than the potent wand of the alchymist of the olden time could attribute to flukes in the liver or in any other part of the body; and, besides the chemical question at issue, we shall soon find that the doctrine of

but sufficiently viscous in consistency to adhere to the fibrous texture of the meat when cut up. But in cutting up the flesh of a rotten sheep, the water follows the knife. The adipose membrane and its contents are of an equally unhealthy and abnormal character. That there is a very great diversity in the quality of such meat, is not surprising; and the fact is easily accounted for, from the differences in the quality of the food consumed, as well as from retarded calorification (there being less fat-forming matter consumed in this process during rot than in health, so that the difference goes to increase the weight of the carcase), and from the period or stages of the disease at which different animals are slaughtered. And to these must be added also constitutional differences. Again, the progress of the disease is more rapid in warm summers than in cold-in Egypt than in England; and this also will affect the quality of the meat, as during the obese period a waste of muscular tissue takes place. In all these cases, the raw materials and the weather sufficiently account for the quality of the manufactured article.

With regard to the rationale of the fat-forming process, that is a physiological question as well as a chemical one, which must be solved by natural data consistent with the

animal economy. There can be nothing mysterious or magical about the matter; for Nature cannot manufacture fat without the elements of fat, any more than can bread be made without flour. We have seen that she has an abundance of the raw materials, that these are of an inferior quality, and that the fat produced is also of a very inferior kind; and when we come to discuss, in another article, the second head of the general subject, we shall find that, when Nature receives an abundant supply of raw materials, of a superior quality, she then produces a superior quality of rich "blooming fat," as the Metropolitan butchers call it. There is nothing unreasonable in all this, but the contrary. As to the deposition of fat in the system, that is the peculiar function of the adipose organs; and whenever there is an extra stimulus applied, there is, as a matter of course, an extra secretion or depo. sition of fat. But of this more afterwards.

Under certain diseased conditions of the adipose system, however as polysarcia, or obesity-there is an unnatural disposition to deposit extra quantities of inferior fat, sometimes very unequally, in the adipose tissue. Not unfrequently it is found in parts of the body where it should not be deposited, as in the lymphatics; and as the diagnosis of the fatty period of rot bears a close resemblance to that of obesity in the human body in several respects, the question naturally arises, Do the two-the fatty period of rot in sheep, and obesity in man-belong to the same class of diseases?

It is not, however, a question in nosology that we have taken up the pen to discuss, but one in the dietetics and general management of our flocks. When examined from the former point of view, there are, no doubt, a long list of diseases that the unwholesome food in question may produce, and actually do produce, according to predisposing causes existing within the system, or to management and other causes from without, to which the sheep is exposed. At the same time, when the food consumed is of such a quality as to produce disease, as the fatty stage of rot manifestly is, the pathological question cannot altogether be avoided.

whose vitality in warm rotting weather is often very much depressed, and the consequent small quantity of the fatformning material taken into the system that is thereby consumed in the work of keeping up the temperature of the body, thus leaving more than the normal proportion of it to be used up in the increase of carcase weight. Then follows the long catalogue of elementary substances, of which the food is deficient, but which is daily required as the natural stimuli of all the organs of the body-so that when we begin to examine these individually, not a single organ of the whole living fabric is found to be supplied with its natural stimulus; hence the manner they gradu ally cease to perform their respective functions healthily, even when not affected by any other cause from within or from without, as formerly noticed.

Of the various organs of the body thus deprived of part of their natural stimuli, it will only be necessary for us to notice three-viz., the liver, the adipose organs, and those organs that supply the flesh with the juice that forms so large an element in the increase of the carcase weight of a rotten sheep.

The blood, as it flows into the capillaries of the liver from the intestines, supplies the bile-secreting apparatus with the elements of the bile. As was formerly shown, this secreting apparatus consists of innumerable tubular cell-vessels, each of which is an organ for the elaboration and secretion of bile. Each of these organs has, when in health, the power of selecting its food, the elements of the bile, from the blood, and of elaborating these into bile as they pass through its structure, and also of discharging this raw bile into the small ducts, where it undergoes further changes as it flows onwards to the gall-bladder. These elements form the natural stimulus of the secreting organs. This stimulus is taken in at the one end of the organ and discharged at the other. The process is partly mechanical, partly chemical; but beyond this, very little is yet known of its true character. "Doctors differ"; and they are very much divided on this, and on the structural anatomy of these secreting organs. If the newly-absorbed chyle supplies the blood with an excess of the elements of bile, it will naturally stimulate the secreting organs to make a corresponding extra quantity of bile; and if deficient of stimulus, vice versa. Some of our readers are probably experimentally acquainted with the soundness of both these conclusions, derangement of the liver being very general.

During the fatty period of rot under investigation, the large quantity of food consumed requires a corresponding increase in the supply of bile from the gall-bladder, along with the pancreatic juices. To counterbalance this it supplies the blood with a corresponding increase of chyle. This chyle, however, is abnormal. It contains, for example, an excess of certain elements of bile, but a deficiency of the others; so that although the quantity of fresh bile made to feed the gall-bladder corresponds with what it discharges into the duodenum, yet the

In a work recently published by authority of the American Chemical Institute, on "Positive Medical Agents," it is laid down as an axiom in dietetics, that "No organ can perform its natural function healthily, for any length of time, when any part of its natural stimulus is withdrawn." When examined in this light, the subject of unwholesome food in question is in the highest degree interesting; for during the first stage of rot this food increases the weight of the sheep more rapidly than does other foods of a superior quality; while, at the same time, it is slowly but surely undermining the health of the whole system. There is thus more than one anomaly in each of the two examples. In both cases-in health as in the disease under consideration-the increase in weight, sup-quality is inferior; ditto ditto as regards the par.creatic juice. posing the sheep full grown, consists in the filling up of the flesh with juice and the adipose tissue with fat. But it must always be borne in mind that, besides this twofold process of increase, there is a living organism to repair and maintain, upon which there is a very heavy daily waste; add to these the combustion of a large amount of certain elements of the food in keeping up the heat of the body, or in the calorification of the system, and the reader will readily be able to form some conception of the depth of complexity with which this part of the subject is surrounded.

It is no doubt this complication of circumstances, upon many of which Physiology is only just now but beginning to shed the first rays of light, that has kept the fatty stage of rot, and even the disease in all its devastating entirety, from first to last, so deeply wrapt up in obscurity, that in the darker ages gave rise to so many superstitious notions, and that has been instrumental in handing down so many fallacious opinions to the present generation.

The first thing that is likely to strike the eye of the chemist and physiologist, in the examination of such food and its utilization in the animal economy, is the excess of water and fat-forming material that go to increase the weight of the carcase, especially when the extra quantity of it that is daily consumed during the fatty period is taken into the calculation. The second thing that conspicuously invites attention is the dulness of the animal,

This is the peculiar characteristic of the disease as regards the quantity and quality of the bile at the commencement or during the fatty stage of it, and therefore it merits special attention. Indeed medical writers are agreed that in obesity the secretions are defective. For a time the injurious effects produced upon the duodenal digestion may be small; but as the wedge thus entered gra dually increases in thickness, the sheep ultimately falls off its feed, the chyle becomes not only deteriorated in quality, but deficient in quantity, less and less and worse and worse bile being made by the liver, whether it is infested with fluke or not. If there are no fluke in the liver, the disease may assume what is usually termed water-rot. This is the more common type, but there are many others. The moment fluke enter, and begin to irritate the mucous membrane that lines the biliary ducts, the mechanical and nervous action thus raised will retard the secretion of bile, thereby increasing indigestion, and consequently the intensity of the morbid action experienced throughout the system. At first the extra discharge of mucus, which trematode animalcules naturally induce from their ciliated action, would no doubt counteract this irri tation and retardation of biliary secretion, especially as it is set up at a distance from the bile-secreting organs. But as fluke increase in size, and interfere with the secreting organs, the latter would perform their functious less perfectly, or cease altogether. In point of fact they are generally partially obliterated, or cease to exist, the coats of the ducts becoming changed,

"having much the look of soaked leather," to quote the language of Dr. Budd. The elements of the bile, or some of them, are thus not removed from the blood by the hepatic organ, but are carried into the circulation, giving the skin, flesh, and fat, the sallow appearance which they invariably exhibit, not only in animals that die of rot, but in those that are sent to the shambles as the best rotten mutton (?), such as Bakewell boasted of producing! and as too many farmers

ignorantly and unwittingly do, in warm, wet seasons, or, what
is more productive of such diseased meat, wet seasons
attended with great variableness of temperature-warm, close,
and suffocating at one time, but cold and chilling at another.
The other two functions (the fat-forming and juice-forming)
more immediately engaged in producing the increase of
weight, we must postpone to next article.
AN OLD SHepherd.

Horses (number)
Cattle
Sheep
Hides (kilog.)

The French colony of Algeria has been brought rather | tobacco varies, and the purchases by the Regie have prominently before the public here lately, by the collec- varied annually from 2,000,000 to 6,500,000 kilotion of its varied products shown in the International grammes. The cotton cultivation is steadily proExhibition, the number of premiums it has carried off, gressing. There were last year 1,209 acres under and by the large investment of British capital for cot- culture, which produced 158,642 kilogrammes. An ton cultivation and other industrial enterprises in that English company has recently entered into possession quarter. An official report of M. Mercier-Lacombe, of 25,000 hectares intended for cotton cultivation. Minister of State and Director-General of the Civil The following figures indicate the Algerian exports Service in Algeria, on the actual position of that colony, at two periods: just published by order of the Duke of Malakoff, furnishes therefore some useful details for estimating the present condition and agricultural progress of Algeria. We find that the whole population numbers now about 3,000,000, of whom 2,700,000 are Arabs, and 192,746 Europeans. The natural land divisions of the colony are Tunis on the east, the empire of Morocco on the west, and the Sahara native tribes subject to France on the south. The northern coast line of the Mediterranean is about 250 leagues, those of the east and west about 97 leagues, and the total superficies is approximately estimated at 24,375 square leagues. The country naturally divides itself into three great divisions-that on the coast which carries the rivers to the sea, the high lands in the interior where the waters are gathered into lakes, and the Sahara. In an agricultural and pastoral point of view we distinguish the agricultural and wooded region in the north, known as the Tell, embracing about 14,000,000 of hectares, considered the granary of Algeria, yielding abundant crops, which furnish the inhabitants with their breadstuffs, tobacco, cotton, furniture woods, and wine. To the south is the Sahara, where is the pasturage of the nomad tribes.

The Algerian wheats 'are divided into two classeshard wheat and soft wheat. The former is the only variety grown by the natives. The flour of this wheat furnishes a larger and better quality of bread than that of the soft wheat, and is more nutritive. The gluten, which is the essential ingredient necessary for conversion into the alimentary pastes (vermicelli, macaroni, semola, &c.), is found in larger proportion in this wheat than that of any other country, not excepting the wheats of Sicily and Taganrog. The chemical examinations made at the laboratories of Sarbonne and Paris, and the practical results of trials, leave no doubt on this point. In 1861 there were under culture with hard wheat 891,219 hectares, and with soft or imported wheat 71,002 hectares. The produce of the former was 4,849,598 hectolitres, and of the latter 71,002 hectolitres.

The progress of agriculture is shown in the statement that in 1856 there were 1,270,686 hectares under culture with cereals and pulse, which yielded 6,614,094 hectolitres; and in 1861, 2,040,260 hectares, yielding a crop of 12,746,651 hectolitres. Barley is a large crop, the harvest of last year yielding 7,124,934 hectolitres. The principal other cultures at present are cotton and tobacco, although a sugar plantation has been commenced at Religanne. The production of

1856.

1861.

....

....

....

Wool

....

Wax

....

Tallow

....

Wheat (hectol.)

....

1,954,453

..

4,226,534
3,422,139

..

1,742,923

Barley
Oats
Flour (kilog.)
Pulse
Tobacco
Olive oil

....

....

The total imports of the colony, which in 1851 were less than 67,000,000 francs, rose in 1861 to 116,600,000 francs; the exports from 19,792,000 francs to 49,000,000 francs. There is, however, a much greater advance than this, as the value of the goods is still estimated at the tariff fixed in 1844 by the General Director of Finance, while the price of most has been greatly augmented.

All the world knows the Arab steed. The number of horses in the three provinces of the colony is returned at 72,703, and of mares 92,699, of mules 117,164, and of asses 193,667. These resources are found sufficient, not only to mount the French cavalry and native troops of Africa, but also to furnish horses for a certain number of regiments, which, after a fixed period of service, return to France. This remount service is organized in the colony on the same plan as in France. There are three depôts, one at Blidat for the province of Algiers, a second at Mostaganem in the province of Oran, and the third at Constantine for that province. A chief of division is placed at the head of each depôt, who is aided by a certain number of captains charged with the duty of purchasing. A remount company is stationed at each depôt, for the purpose of taking charge and transporting the horses, and for managing the stables. The service is centralized in Algiers, under the direction of the Governor-General, in the hands of a colonel, who has the title of director of remounts of the horse establishments.

The purchased mares for the army are covered by imperial stallions, which are kept by the Government for the improvement of this breed. Of these there are at But they are inpresent 183 stallions and five asses.

sufficient to supply the continuous wants of the remount, and hence stallions are purchased from the native tribes, and about 536 native stallions and 82 asses are now held for this purpose. These are from time to time taken to different stations and cover the mares either of the colonists or natives gratis. Last year there were officially served 24,369 mares and 4,339 asses, besides a large and undefined number in private establishments. Great progress has of late years been made in horse breeding. In 1856 only 16,777 mares were covered, 11,656 by native stallions and 5,121 by imperial stallions.

New and vigorous efforts have also lately been made to improve the horses of the colony. The Government has established a breeding stud in which are included the choicest stallions and mares of oriental and African blood, that will be crossed by horses of the best foreign stock. The prices of horses vary according to the character, height, and age of the animals. A cavalry horse of the height required for the military regiments (1 metre 44 centimetres) costs on the average 600 to 800 francs. One of less height varies according to the demand from 75 to 300 francs. But the price of horses of pure blood is continually on the ad

vance.

According to the official statistics collected by the administration in establishing a native tax, it appears that Algeria possesses about one million head of cattle, and ten million head of sheep, which includes those belonging to the colonists. A report prepared in 1860 by the Commandant of the division of Algiers, pointed out in strong terms the advantage which had resulted, and would further accrue, from attention being paid to the raising of live stock.

From this report we find that the combined European and native population occupy about 46,000,000 hectares, or in the proportion of one individual to fifteen hectares. There would be, therefore, one head of cattle for about forty hectares, and one sheep for every four hectares. The colonists, looking at the extent of their pasturage, and the climate, have ample room for extension; and as France pays yearly about 60,000,000 francs for foreign wool, there is plenty of scope for Algerian enterprise in this direction alone. Spain takes from Algeria yearly a large number of cattle, but these are badly cared for and fed by the natives, and of a very inferior breed, hence the purchasers have to fatten them before slaughter.

The 10,000,000 of sheep produce yearly about 150,000 quintals of wool in the grease. There is exported about 40,000 quintals of this wool, the rest being consumed in the factories of Beni-Mzab, Beni-Abbes, and other native tribes of the interior, or for the preparation of tents. On the average the clip of wool weighs in the grease about 1 kilo. 500 grammes, and sells for 1 f. It is quite possible to double the weight of the fleece by proper care, and to increase also largely the weight of the cattle with but very little expense to the breeders. Experience and practice have shown that a flock well managed, and placed in favourable circumstances, increases rapidly in production and value, and after a very few years yields a return equivalent to the original capital invested. By a persistent and intelligent course of action it is asserted in the report, that it is quite possible, ere long, to make Algeria, as far as regards wool production, a second Australia, with this advantage, that she is within forty-eight hours of Marseilles.

I

THE DINNER TO MR. M'COMBIE, OF TILLYFOUR. On Thursday, July 31, the dinner to Mr. M'Combie, Tillyfour, as promoted by the members of the Royal Northern Agricultural Society, and others, in acknowledgment of his eminence as a breeder of the black polled cattle, took place in the Music Hall, Aberdeen. The company numbered about 400, representing the leading interests in the town and county, with many gentlemen from a distance. The Marquis of Huntly, Lord-Lieutenant of the County, presided; and the Croupiers were: Sir Andrew Leith Hay, Convener of the County; Sir J. D. H. Elphinstone, M.P.; and Mr. Farquharson, of Haughton. The hall was laid out with two principal end tables, and five others along the area. Behind the chair was a portrait of Mr. M'Combie's famous Poissy Ox; and in the centre of the hall was a trophy formed of the cups and medals gained by him. In returning thanks for his health, Mr. M'Combie said: My Lord Marquis, Croupiers, and Gentlemen, I feel quite overpowered by the expression of kind feeling toward me which has been made to-day by you, my Lord, by the Croupiers, by a large number of the landed proprietors of this, the greatest cattle breeding and cattle feeding county in Britain-by the Lord Provost, by the Magistrates, by many of the influential citizens of Aberdeen; by tenant farmers and friends from various parts of Scotland; by gentlemen with whom I have fought hard battles in our showyards, and by many of my old servants, who have attained, by their good conduct, respecta ble positions in society. I feel in my inmost heart, the generous, the surpassing kindness you have shown me. I am very highly gratified by the terms in which you, my lord, have spoken of my exertions to improve our polled breed of cattle, and of the success with which these exertions have been crowned. I was led by a father, whose memory I revere, to believe that our polled cattle are peculiarly suited to our soil and climate, and that, if their properties were rightly brought out, they would equal, if not surpass, any other breed as to weight, symmetry, and quality of flesh. I resolved that I would endeavour to improve our native breed. I have exerted all my energies to accomplish

this purpose. For many years I was an unsuccessful exhibitor at the Smithfield Club. I went to Baker-street, I minutely examined the prize winners, I directed my attention especially to the points in which the English were superior to the Scottish cattle: I came to the conclusion that I had been beaten, not because our Scottish breed was inferior to the English breeds. I saw that I had been beaten, because I was imperfectly acquainted with the points of the animals most appreciated in Baker-street, and the proper system of feeding them. I selected the animals best fitted for exhibition at Baker-street. doubled, I tripled, I quadrupled the cake allowed to my feeding stock, I attained the object of my ambition. The English agriculturists always maintained that a Scot would never take a first place in a competition with a Shorthorn, a Hereford, or a Devon; I have given them reasons for changing their opinion. A Polled Scot, exhibited by me, took the first place at Birmingham. To a Polled Scot, exhibited by me, the Prince Albert Cup was unanimously awarded at the late Great International Show in France, by a jury of twelve, consisting of English, Irish, and French gentlemen, in a competition with the finest oxen of the English breeds, in a competition with the finest oxen of the French breeds. I feel very highly gratified that you, my Lord, representing the sentiments of this influential assembly of gentlemen-one of the most influential assemblies, I believe, that ever met in the metropolis of the North-have expressed yourself to the effect that I have reflected credit on Aberdeenshire, and promoted the agricultural interests of Scotland.

The Aberdeen Free Press, which reports the proceedings at great length, gives, as an appropriate supplement to the same number of the paper, a complete list of the prizes taken by Mr. M'Combie with his cattle. These comprise upwards of £1,300 in money, 66 gold, silver, and bronze medals, 5 silver cups, a piece of plate, and a gold snuff-box. A portrait of Mr. M'Combie's Birmingham cow, "the best animal in the show," appears in The Farmers' Magazine for August,

THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.