of food is as necessary to the natural mechanism,
the horse, as fuel is to the artificial mechanism, the steam-engine.
In each case the amount of force developed is, within certain limits,
proportionate to the quantity of vegetable or altered vegetable matter
consumed. The greater portion of the ox's food is also consumed in
keeping its body alive, and the rest, instead of being expended in the
development of motive power, accumulates as surplus stores of flesh,
which in due time are applied to the purpose of repairing the organisms
of men. It is evident then, that the greater sufferer from the deficient
supply of food to animals is their owner. That they cannot be _taught_
to _fast_ is a fact which does not appear very patent to some minds.
The man who sought by gradually reducing the daily quantum of his
horse's provender to accustom it to work without eating, was justly
punished for his ignorant cruelty. The day before the horse's allowance
was to be reduced to pure water, and when its owner's hope appeared
certain of speedy realisation, the animal died. There are men who act
almost as foolishly as the parsimonious horse owner in this fable did;
and who are as properly punished as he was. Such men are to be found in
the farmers who overstock their sheep pastures, and whose "lean kine"
are the _laughing stock_ of their more intelligent neighbours.

The weight of a working full-grown horse does not vary from day
to day, as the weight of its egesta is equal to that of its food.
The desideratum in the case of the working animal is that its food
should be as thoroughly decomposed as possible, and the force pent
up in it liberated within the animal's body: as an ox, on the contrary,
increases in weight from day to day, it is desirable that as little as
possible of its food should be disorganised. The wasteful expenditure
of the animal's fat may be obviated by shelter, and the application of
artificial heat: the retardation of the destruction of its flesh is even
more under our control; for, as active muscular exertion involves the
decomposition of tissue, we have merely to diminish the activity of
the motions which cause this waste. This, in practice, is effected by
stall-feeding. Confined within the narrow boundaries of the stall, the
muscular action of the animal is reduced to a minimum, or limited to
those uncontrollable actions which are conditions in the maintenance
of animal life.

The proportion of the food of oxen