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3 Our Dumb Animals 1 (1870-1871)

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                                      I  would not enter on my list of friends,
                                        Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
                                        Yet  wanting sensibility, the man
                                        Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.


Vol. 3.                                            BOSTON, JUNE, 1870.                                                                No. 1.


   Our Dumb Animals.

             Published Monthly by the

Massackusttts  Stittl   for tt  Vrtbention  of

            AT utHt  to    imaOs,
         AT  THE  SOCIETY'S   ROOMS,


46 Washington  Street .


.  .   .  Boston.


         TERMs.-$1.00 per annum, in advance.
  Postage in the city, FREE. To all parts of the United States,
  outside of Boston, TwELVE CENTS PER ANNUM for each
  package of four ounces, payable in advance, at the office where
  received.
  Articles for the paper and subscriptions may be sent to the
  Secretary.
  GEORGE T. ANGELL . . . . . . . . . . President.
  HENRY SALTONSTALL . ........   Treasurer.
  FRANK B. FAY . .... .... .    . . SecretarY.
  CHARLES A. CURRIER . .... .....   Special Agent.

                  SPlEE 1 C TI
                       OF
 DR. GEORGE B. LORING,
                     AT THE
      ANNUAL MEETING OF THIS SOCIETY, MARCH 29, 1870.


   MR. CHAInRAN:-*  * I was asked to come here, as
 one versed in the feeding and care of animals.
 There is nothing spiritual in this, nothing poetic,
 there is nothing sublime, but there is everything
 humane and  Christian. That is the only excuse
 that I have for appearing here as a Massachusetts
 farmer, happy to look in the face of this distin-
 guished fraternity on this occasion, to deal with the
 question of humanity to animals in an agricultural
 way. I congratulate you and myself and all the
 farmers and all the cattle and all the horses of Mas-
 sachusetts upon the existence of this Society. It
 does seem to me an earnest and assurance that into
 the business of life has at last entered, for man and
 for beast, the great element of humanity. Man has
 exhausted himself in this country and in this age,
 in working out and  solving and removing  that
 statement long ago made, that  Man's inhumanity
 to man makes  countless thousands mourn;  but
 now you have come down  to the older and more
 sublime doctrine, it seems to me, that  The merci-
 ful man is merciful to his beast. It is higher au-
thority, at any rate, and it is older doctrine. It is
as sublime a one as a Christian one.


            OUR RELATIONS TO ANIMALS.
   Now, my  friends, the relations we hold to our
 domestic animals are most intricate, most remark-
 able, and most interesting. There is hardly a man
 or woman who  has not some pet animal, and some
 immediate association with the animal kingdom.
 The boy comes into the city from his father's home,
 he has been familiar with animals on the old farm
 from his earliest days, and as he rises in wealth and
 position how eagerly he supplies himself either with
 his favorite horse or his pet dog; or he must have
 that cow in his stable, not that her milk is any bet-
 ter than any other cow's, but he cannot resist the
 old association. It comes home to us, as the first
 teaching of our lives, that our relations to animals
 are so immediate that we can never divest our-
 selves of them; and so in all ages, it has been de-
 creed that the animal kingdom is the great practical
 staff which man uses in his passage through life.
 It is an old French proverb and a true one,  No
 cattle, no farming; few cattle, poor farming; many
 cattle, good farming. How true that is! This is
 of itself a most important relation, and the old
 Roman  knew  it, when he said, on being asked,
  What is the best method of farming?'  It is to
 feed cattle well.  And what pext?  To feed
 them with moderation.  This relation exists to-
 day, and has existed as a practical matter in the life
 of man from time immemorial, and is now brought
 more immediately home to us, and gilded with the
 great humanity and charity of the present age.

         PROGRESS-PRPACTICAL QUESTION.
  The  subjugation of this animal kingdom to the
  wants and necessities of man, constitutes one of the
  most interesting chapters in the whole history of
  man's advancement. * * The progress is wonderful,
  and so it is interesting to us, this passage of man
  and the animal kingdom ending in all the great civi-
lization of life. To us here, all this is a matter of
practical interest. I speak for the business of this
Commonwealth;   and in this branch of it with which
I am dealing, I am sure that kindness, gentleness
and profit go hand in hand. We have here in Mas-
sachusetts 90,000 horses, worth over $9,000,000. We
have 50,000 oxen, worth $3,000,000; we have 150,000
cows, worth  somewhere  in the neighborhood  of
$7,000,000; so that the agricultural branch of the
State supplied by cattle, constitutes $19,000,000 or
$20,000,000 of the wealth of this community. This
is worth looking after; and it can be materially in-
jured, made worthless and unprofitable by misman-
agement.  This is too much the case now.

                GOOD  FEEDING.
  We  may consider with care all the efforts that are
made  to remove  the cruelties which have been


alluded to to-night in the admirable report of the
Secretary.  We   all know  how  necessary these
efforts are. Before our eyes day by day, the wrongs
to the animal kingdom go on.  The  power of our
dumb  allies to aid us is diminished by neglect and
maltreatment.  The service rendered by horses on
our street cars, and drays and carriages, is only
profitable when rendered by those animals with the
cheer and alacrity which attend a good condition.
The  discouragement which attends abuse and neg-
lect, shortens the length of the animal's service, and
reduces its amount.  Life to him is a prolonged
weariness, and such an existence should be to us a
rebuke and a shame. While  we protest, therefore,
against the open and palpable cruelties practised
before us, and appeal to the civil tribunals to aid us
in suppressing them, let us not forget that intelli-
gent and skillful care of animals, which can alone
make  their lives comfortable, their labors light, and
their service, in all its various forms, really useful
and profitable. It is the cruelty of the stable and
the stall which I would remove. It is the humanity
of good care and judicious feeding, the only reward
we  can bestow upon  the faithful beast, which I
would impress upon your minds. * *
  That mercy which feeds and cares for an animal
with judgment and skill, is the mercy which is most
warmly  recognized, and is that form of humanity
which makes labor light, and relieves almost all the
suffering incident to the animal's subjugation. But
the prolonged weary distress which attends starva-
tion and neglect, or the mistaken kindness of inju-
dicious feeding, exhausting the animal powers, and
converting all effort into pain, is the refinement of
cruelty, and should be prevented, as you would pre-
vent the merciless lash from wounding, or the over-
crowded  car from its savage work of destruction.
  I have great faith in the comfort, happiness, and
health to be derived from judicious feeding for
animals as well as for men. * * I am confident that
the well fed man and the well fed animal can defy
all winds  and swamps,  and  morasses. A  good
digestion will enable a man to live where a frog
would die. The question of health and strength is
more a question of nutrition than of climate. I go
to Europe and I find the inhabitants of Holland
living in a low, flat, cheerless country, defying all
the depressing influences of soil and climate, by
their confidence in a judicious diet, and their belief
in the laws of healthy nutrition. The rule which
man wherever he goes, whether under the eternal
frosts of the poles, or the heats and miasms of the
tropics, whether on land or on sea, whether on hill
or in valley, must obey if he would preserve his
health and strength, applies also to the animal.
Perhaps more to the animal than to man. You may
thlqil you are peculiarly segsitive and impressible,


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