Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1884-01-04
Digestion and Assimilation OF Food.

III mas Dccn observed, O1 some cattle,
that their droppings were very much
in excess of those from others of like
size and age on similar feed. These
copious drOppings are not usually OBJ
served to come from prompt fatteners,
because the condition named is opposed
to the rapid laying on of flesh. The
tendency is opposite, because, in cattle
having this popularity, not little of
the nutritive properties of food passes
rapidly through them. AS will always
be observed in animals that are opened
and examined after death the contents
of the small intestines, those first re-
ceiving the partially digested food, will
be found to be liquid in form, gradually
assuming consistency. as they pass
along through the intestines. In this
liquid state, such proportions rs arc
nutritious in character are IN the best
possible cond ton to be absorbed.
When the evacuations are in excess,
as they sometimes are, even though the
amount of food taken be small in guam
tity, no cattle beast can make any gain
in flesh, and it is worse than waste to
persist in the giving of food, because
this state calls for rest rather than for
nhN ttttIlpl' NOlot kLdil ust-
less, To force weakened organs to do
that which they can only do when in
possession of full health and vigor. A
very careful experiment was tried upon
two cows, the object being to test thor
oughly the comparative powers of as
similation between the two. The en-
pertinent continued fourteen days, each
COW being in her sixth year, and each
one close to 1000 pounds in weight
Each was fed n fraction under 102
pounds of rye grass daily; 70 per cent.
of this grass was water, so that 1861
pounds of dry matter entered the stom-
ach of each COW in fourteen days. The
dung Of one COW weighed, when void
ed, l,049 pounds, and of the other,
1000 pounds. Thoroughly dried that
of the COW giving off the amount first
quoted, weighed 147 pounds, and from
the other, 40 pounds. This test
showed that the absorbents of one COW
took up half pound of the solid food
daily more than was taken up by the
other. This entered the blood each
twenty-four hours, and illustrated what
will be found true of cattle the world
over that there is great diversity in
the appropriative powers of different
animals, as great, in fact, as there is
in the heating power of different stoves
upon the use of n given amount of fuel.
The experiments given above show
that more than half the substance
taken into the system rs food passed in
to the circulation, and was not voided
by the bowels. Cattle feeding has not
yet been reduced to that system, which
prevails in many other branches of
business, where frequent and thorough
tests are instituted. through which all
groupings in the dark is prevented. Our
agricultural college farms afford the
very best possible opportunities for
making these experiments, as all the
appliances are at hand, or if they are
not, they should be. The chemistry
taught at these schools has no field for
experiment so appropriate, when we
take into account the object of estab-
fishing agricultural schools, with ex-
perimental farms attached, breeding
and feeding establishments entering
into the plans. Such experiments as
are made to elucidate obscure and UNI
important matters, made largely for the
amusement of the students, at any rate,
they do not appear as of any interest
or value in agriculture, should be omit
| ted in every case where the laboratory
and the time OF the class can be taken
up by the subjects pertinent to the feed
ing of farm stock.-LtUe Stock Journal