Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-09-28
A Difference In the Digestion Of Ami.
mails.

Almost every one thinks that animals
of the same species, being animals, are
all alike. Upon this supposltion they
are fed alike. and generally in lots, or
fiocks, where each one gets its portion
as best it can, the stronger robblng the
weaker. The truth is, there is a great
difference in animals of the same spe-
cies in their ability to fully digest food.
One animal, very often, can eat as much
again as another without any injury, but,
on the contrary, it may re III re double
the amount of food to keep all its organs
in healthful action. There is always
more or less difference in the ability of
animals of the same sort to digest and
assimilate food. When they are fed in
lots, or flocks, these differ ences can not
be well observed. When it is noticed
that an animal is not thriving, it should
Immediately be separated from the
others and put by itself, and a careful
test should be made of its ability to di-
gest food. Most of the sicknesses of
young animals, and older ones also.
comes from a disordered condition of
the stomach, and this is gradually
caused by over-eating. In order to test
the ability of an animal for digesting
its food, a comparison must be made,
not with the amount it eats, but with its
eXcrements compared with those of an
animal perfectly healthy and vigorous.
If undigested portions of its food
are found in the excrement, then
it is apparent that it is fed too
much; if the cxcrement is in
loose and watOsy condition, it is prob
able, also, that this animal has been
over-fed, and in either case there
duction of food l do not mean les
SEEMING of the amount of hay and grass,
but the feeding of more concentrated
foods. such as grain or milk; beginning
with q small amount and not increas-
ing the ration beyond the degree of
perfect digestion. This system of feed
ing will always insure healthy condi-
ton and greater gain than with an ex-
cess of food, unless colds should inter-
vene by allowing the animal to become
chilled either by exposure to storms or
cold drafts.
A farmer should always remember
that it is not the amount of food which
goes into an animals stomach that
makes the largest gain; but what il
can entirely digest and assimilate.
These differences are SO great that ex-
periments in feeding can never be made
infallible tests of the values of food, or
of different breeds of animals for fat
tening, or, indeed, of classes of animals
of the same breed. As an illustration
of this point, one calf may consume q
quart of linseed-oil meal and wheat
middlings and be in perfect health,
while another of the same age, on this
amount of food, would have scours;
whereas, if this kind of food was re-
duced to one-half or one-fourth the
amount, it would do well. The same
law VII apply with equal force to
young pigs or lambs, and also to full
grown animals.
have learned that the growth and
fattening of animals do not depend
upon the abundance of food so much
as upon other conditions; the most i'm
portant of these, as have herein stat
ed, being the digestive powers of the
stomach. The tone and ability of the
stomach to perform its functions may
be maintained and strengthened BY
mixing less nutritious food with that
which is cooling in its nature, such as
roots and forage. which may be cut
fine, with the grain. When thus mixed,
there is tendency to cloying and to
fermentation. There will also be
greater secretion of saliva and more
thorough mastication, without which
there can not be perfect digestion. The
stomachs of some animals require more
rest than those of others, and, without
it there will be continual disorder and
feeble gain. The losses accruing to
farmers from indiscriminate feeding, re-
CARELESS of the peculiarities of the ami
mails, are enormous.-C1tonet Curtis, in
Rural NeU Yorker.