Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-09-20
Relation Of Food to Animal Develop.
ment.


ment.
The feeding of animals to the best
advantage is very simple matter with
those who fully understand the compO-
sitiOn of the animal body and the COM
position of foods. All the failures in
feeding are the result of ignorance
upon these two things, and no feeder
should be content to conduct his bust
ness without such knowledge, not even
if he has been reasonably successful,
for success in the dark may turn to
failure ut any moment. What are the
elements of the animal structure? is
the first important question, and what
becomes of them is the second? An
animal is not like stone wall which is
practically indestructible, and when
once built will remain without attention
for lifetime. Every part of the body
is wearing away every second. and must
be supplied with new material or the
direction is toward collapse The
materials of the body are in continual
process of breaking up, first in the cells,
and what remains after the demands of
the vital phenomena have been COM
piled with, is seized upon by the oxygen
which the blood carries to every part,
and is burned to supply the necessary
heat which is constantly escaping from
the body, and what is left after this
process is excreted. This steady loss
of material must be repaired, and in the
case of young animals especially, ma
terial must be furnished for new growth.
If we feed on corn alone we may starve
the animal to death, although it may
be so fat that it can not move.
The bone and muscle are wholly
unsupplied with what they need.
and we are producing u condition of
absolute disease. To feed just right,
therefore, is very delicate operation,
and is in marked contrast to the sys-
tenn, which is entirely too prevalent, of
feeding just what comes handiest. Re-
duced down to nicely, an evenly bal
anced food is one that supplies the
bones with all they need to keep them
in perfect strength and the process of
growth; the muscles with all that they
may require, and furnish the fat
forming elements in the proportion de-
sired. But while to some extent fat
formation may be neglected, the supply
of material for sustaining the bony and
muscular system should never be, ex-
cept in the later stages of fattening.
when, if there has been due previous
attention given to the development of
bone and muscle, they will bear neglect
for the short time that is desirable for
forcing fat development. We repeat
what we have sometimes stated before,
that the neglect to provide for the de-
velOpment of the entire animal struct-
ure has caused great trouble. and heavy
losses in this country. In some cases
these consequences have come from a
hit-or-miss system of feeding from
feeding with no other well conceived
purpose than to keep the animal alive.
while in others they are the fruit of
that species of insanity which conceives
fat to be the alpha and omega of stock
raising 1t may be omega, but it is not
the alpha by very long ways, and I'M
less that fact is generally recognized,
we shall have more trouble with our
stock than we have yet had. When we
realize that to make strong healthy
frame is the first thing to accomplish
with every one of our domestic ami
mails, we shall have consulted our own
interests very materially. Whenever
we do not do this whenever we neglect
to supply every part of the system with
what it may require, we simply fight
the laws of nature, and in battle of
that kind we shall get whipped on every
field, in every pig-pen and in every cat
tle-yard.
Now, in the animal body we find as
one of the most important constituents,
water. Under most circumstances, it
makes more than half the weight of tho
body. and is as essential to what wa
call the solid tissues as any of the other
elements which make up their compost
ton. This being true, the supply OF
water in some shape or another is %
matter of supreme Importance. Tho
animal can only get water through tho
pouth and stomach, and it must bo
connection with foods. The dry sub
stances of the body consist of organic
and inorganic matter, the former being
divided into heterogeneous and nom
heterogeneous materials. The most inn
portant non-nitrogeneus substance is
fat, the others being inconsiderable in
quantity. The heterogeneous substances
are the albuminoids -aTbumen and
fbriD -gelatincus substances and horny
matters, and these contain carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen. oxygen and
sulphur. The inorganic portion, or
ash, of the body consists Of potash.
soda, ma9nesis, chlorine. carbonic acid
and silica. The ash Of the bones is at
least seven-eights phosphate of lime.
the remainder being carbonate of lime.
with small quantities of magnesia and
soda. Besides phosphoric acid and
lime, the most important Inorganic
constituents of the body are potash,
soda and chlorine, the last two making
common salt. Now, in feeding these
elements are to be supplied. Vestsrs
Rural.