Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/134

 so prevalent. There is great reason to believe that the fine flavour of the meat may not solely proceed from an adequate age of the animal, but may also depend on particularity of breed, as much as great fatness or quality of wool; and if the breeders of sheep would attend a little to this circumstance in future, they would confer a singular favour on all those who eat mutton, who are at least as numerous as the tallow chandlers and clothiers, whose interests they have hitherto chiefly studied in this matter, next to their own.

THE practice of slaughtering cattle by puncturing the medulla spinalis, or as it is now called pithing cattle, is extending through all parts of the kingdom (Great Britain) by the perseverance of the Board of Agriculture. The want of skill in the operation, and the prejudices arising from established customs, we are sorry to observe, however, render the system less general than it should be. It is perfectly ascertained that the spinal marrow may be divided without immediate death, should the wound be inflicted below the origin of the nerves that supply the diaphragm, and allow the animal the power of respiration; but if the puncture is made into the cavity of the skull, so as to divide the medullary substance above the origin of these nerves, death is instantaneous, and without the least apparent sensation of pain. If a line be drawn across the head from the root of each ear (about an inch and an half from the horns) the centre of this line is the spot in which the puncture should be made, an awl or a common penknife is as good an instrument as can be used.