Should Fattening Cattle Have Salt?

From some sliabt and ineonclusive experimenta, as woll as from physiological considcrations, we have bad onr douhts whether it was good eeo-nomy to allow animáis feeding for the butoher, tlie free uso of aalt. Salt is doubtless conducive to health, favoring the formation of bile, and aiding in carrying effete matter from the system ; but there is no reason to suppose that it favors the accumulation ot fat. Liebig, indeed, asserts that "the absence of coii;mon salt ís favorable to the forroation of fat," aud tbat the " fatiening of an animal ís reodered impussible, when we add to its food an exoees oí salt, although sbort of the quantit.y required to produce a purgativo effect " More recently, however, in nllusion to experimenta made since the publication of the work in which the above sentence occurs, Liebiaj says : - " Salt does not aet as a producer of flesh ; but it neutralizes the injurious actions of the conditions, which must be united ia the unnattiral state of animáis fed or fattened in order to produce flesh ; and the advantages attendiag its use cíin hardly be estimated too nighly." The experiinents of Boussingault have often been ullnded to, as indicatÍDg that salt by no means exerciees a beneiioial influonce. upon the growth of cattlo, aDd upon the devclopment of flesh, to the estent usually ascribed to it. His more recent experiinents, however, result in favor f salt. Thus, two lots ol steers, of tlaree each, were fed on hay for thirteeo months, one lot being allowed salt, tho other not. Tlie average weight per hoad of the Haited lot, at the commencement of the experiment, was 955 poiinds ; at the end of thirtcen months, 2,090 pounds. Increase, 1,135 lbs. They consumed, per head, 15,792 pounds of hay. One ton of hay, therefore produoed 143 pounds of iucrease of auiinal. Tlie second lot, which reoeived no salt, averaged at the commencement of the experiment 8G0 pounds; at the end of thirtoen months, 1,860. Increase, 9!) ! pounds. They consumed, per hoad, 14 553 pounds of hay. Or one ton ot hay prodaced 137 pounds of increase of anima'. The steers rcceiving salt produced fiix pounds moro increase for each ton of hay consumed than those not allowed salt. This may be considerad only a slight advantage, and in France did not pay for the prioe of the salt; in this country however, where salt is much cheaper, its use wil! doubtles9 be proñtabie. Jioussingault remarks, "the salt exercises no considerable influence on the growth. yet it appears to exert a bencficial effect oa the appcarance and condition of tho animal." After the first fourteen dayR, no perceptible difference was observed between the two lots ; but in the course of the month iollowing, the diffarenoö was visible to tho unpracticed eye. In the beasts of both lots, the skin to the toueh was fine and sound, but the hair in the steers having salt " was sinooth and shining ; that of tho others dnll and erect." As the experiment progressed, these signs became etill more prominent. "In ths animáis of the second lot, aftér they had had no salt for a year, the hair was matted, and the skin here and there devoid of hair. Thoso of the first lot, on the contrary, retained the look of stall-kept beasts. The liveliness, and frequent indications of tho tendoney to lcap, contrastod strikingly with the heavy gait and cold temperament observed. in those of the second lot. There can be no doubt," Boossíngaült adds, " that a higber prioe would have been obtidned in the market for the oxen reared under tbo influence