Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-10-15
Feed for Teams vs.. Feed for Fattening
Animals.

A WORKER, whether human or animal,
requires feed that will produce more
muscle than fat, while animals that are
being fed with reference to fattening them
need kind of food that will yield more
fat and flesh than muscle. Hence when
teams of any kind are required to exert
great muscular force the best feed con-
sists chiefly of oatmeal and prime hay. 1t
is poor economy to feed whole oats to any
animal except colts and sheep. Three
bushels of oats ground into fine meal will
make more available muscle and strength
when fed to teams than four bushels fed
in the whole grain. On the same princi-
pie manual laborers who eat literally OF
oat meal and lean meat will be much
stronger than if they subsist on mush and
corn bread and fat pork. Why? Simply
because the oatmeal and lean meat will
supply much larger amount of muscle
! forming material than the corn bread and
| fatty meat. Fat only will not give
strength. Muscle and generous proper
ton of fat are the main desiderata.
| In rearing and sustaining domestic an
imals four distinct conditions occur, viz. :
Growth, or general development; fatten-
| ing, or increase of flesh and fat; Welding
milk and performing labor. Different spe-
cies of animals possess different degrees
of aptitude in turning their food into one
or other of these directions. Thus the
hog fattens most readily, the cow yields
most milk and the horse performs the
greatest amountof labor. All these animals
might be fed alike on a certain diet and
yet manifest their characteristic tenden-
cies in good degree, for the functions
of all animals are the same to certain
point That food, however, which best
develops fat in the hog is not best adapted
to sustain labor of the horse. Where the
animals functions are required to differ
in their essential nature there the food
must also differ; and when we will carry
the peculiar aptitude of an animal TO the
highest pitch, it cannot be done without
particular attention TO the quality of the
food. In fact, by careful selection OF
the food we can change the character OF
the animal, and when at the same time
other physiological circumstances, eli
mate, etc, are suitably regulated, it is pos
sible, in the course of few generations
to impress new characters on a race. In
this way the various breeds of cattle and
swine have originated. A thorough un
derstanding of the reciprocal relations be
tween food and functional development is
therefore, of the highest consequence tC
the practical agriculturist 1t cannot
however, for a moment be pretended tha
science, in its present state, furnishes ex
tensive or satisfactory knowledge on these
points. But physiological chemistry ha:
developed some truths which warrant the
, hope that our future progress in this di
rection will be rapid and profitable. Elk
periments have been recently made will
view to determine what should be tht
relation between the nitrogenous and non
-. e al. f,..
working ,fattening and milk giving animal
as well as for otherwise determining the sta
tistics of nutrition. Many interesting
and valuable results have been obtained
already, but the trials have not yet beel
carried out so far as to lead to entirel,
! satisfactory conclusions. In Saxony mucl
attention has been devoted to these sub
jects, and experiments in feeding conduct
, ed in that country have shown that breed
!. ing and dairy cattle thrive best when eac
: animal receives daily for every 100 pound
! of its live weight 2.5pounds TO 2.S pound
!, of food calculated In the dry ystate), whic
: contains 0!25 pounds TO 0.30 pounds of n
: trogenous or nutritive and 1.25 pound
; to lao pounds of non-nitrogenous q
: respiratory, fat-forming material, TIL
= stomachs of cattle are adapted to foo
y containing large quantity of wood
y fiber, which is mostly indigestible, an
= seems to perform purely mechanics
3 function in exciting the digestic appar'
q tus. In the trials alluded to the best PR
= portion of woody fiber was found TO |
y two-tenths of the whole dry matter. Yea
= ago attempts were made to construct frol
. chemical analysis tables of nutrihN
equivalents, for exhibiting the Compar
tive value of different sorts of food. III
a first essays of this kind were crude an
9 unsatisfactory, Latterly results have bee
obtained which more nearly accord vii
o practical experience, being founded .
complete analysis, and with bett
knowledge OF the wants OF the anima
d but there are many circumstanc
0 whose effect on the nourishing C
|. pacity of the different kinds
o food has not yet been thoroughly studle
10 that this subject ls still open 70 invest