Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-04-15
COMPLETE FOODS.
Cat Fodder and Ground Grain the best
Aids to Digestion.

be considered with the choice of it, be-
cause digestion depends very much
upon the way the food is presented to
the stomach and the digestive fluids in
it. A hard solid mass presents very
small surface to the action of the gas
trio fluid, but if it is divided up into
small particles with superticies is very
much increased, with proportionate
increase in the solvent action of the di-
gestlve fluid. If calf swallows a
mess of milk too rapidly and it is
coagulated in a mass in the stomach
the animal suffers from indigestion,
but if the milk IS sucked or drank slow
ly and becomes properly mixed with
the saliva, it forms soft, porous,
spongy mass in the stomach through
which the gastric fluid finds its way
easily. and soon reduces it to solution.
1t is the same with solid food. Grain
fed whole presents a hard surface and
small area as compared with the fine
meal into which it may be ground, and
the latter is therefore far more digesti-
BILE than the former This is the COM
mon experience and needs no attempt
to prove it.
With coarse folders. as straw. corn
stalks, or even hay, the same principles
apply. But there is an additional rea-
son for the proper preparation of these
coarser foods. No farmer who has in
telligence enough to attempt to feed
cattle for profit would think of confin-
ing his stock to these coarse foods
alone. He knows the more concen-
trated and richer nutriment of grain
is needed to make the flesh and fat re-
quired. But vet many do not under
stand the necessity for the proper
mingling of the food to make it fully
digestible and to extract all the nutri-
ment possible from it. The rough
ness is fed by itself and the grain is
given by itself. The consequence is
the mass of coarse food is not helped
concentrated food is not helped by the
bulky and more porous fodder. and so
both are wasted for want of the mutual
help of one to the other.
This is so much worse when coarse
fodder and whole grain are fed, as are
seen in the large waste of grain which
escapes undigested even from horses
kept in what is supposed to be the best
manner. This waste is often equal to
One-half of the food. The writer was
once feeding twelve horses and eight
working oxen, and the consumption of
food was equal to four hundred pounds
- I,, fnv h,,. h,1
and oats per day. BY procuring fod-
der cutter and mill and cutting the
hay and grinding the grain finely, and
feeding the two together intimately
mixed. the consumption fell off at once
to two hundred and fifty pounds of
hay and six bushels of grain daily, and
the stock improved rapidly in health
and condition. Not one case of collie
or any other disease appeared, al
though previously there were more or
less trouble and disturbance nearly
every night with two or more horses,
and very often horse unable to work.
This caused considerable loss. in adj
ditiOn to the waste of feed. This same
experience has forced those who use
many horses, and every dairyman as
well. to use the cut fodder and ground
grain well mixed, and this practice is
now universal over the civilized world.
Indeed some large feeders even grind
the hay and straw, so as to insure the
most complete digestion that is posi-
bic.
1t is we'll to consider the reasons for
this, so as to fix the facts more strong
y on the mind. Digestion is fer
mentative, solvent process set in action
by the gastric fluid. which eXudcs
copiously from the coats of the stom-
ach when the entrance of food excit IS
these to action. The fluid can only
cause this solvent action by contact
with the particles Of the food, and, as
time is an important element of its ac-
ton, ii the food is not retained long
enough in the stomach to effect the con-
version of the soluble matter of it into
available form, it passes off into the
bowels in a still crude state and con-
siderable portion of it is finally elected
as waste. The addition Of the coarse
fodder, finely cut up into chaff, to the
more nutritious meal not only excites
the stomach to exude its gastric fluid
but it forms spongy. porous
mass which breaks apart in the fluid
and forms pulp through which
the digestive process is Immediately
exerted. Digestion is rapid and COM
plete and no part of the food is wasted.
the wholly insoluble portion only being
elected through the intestines. Thus a
much smaller quantity of food is >uili-
cient to supply the demands of the ami
nal, and as the disposal of this is easier /
than that Of larger quantity, some
saving is also made in the vital force
in the digestive process.
Moreover. the action of digestion is
so to speak. and a portion
of the food digested aids in the diges-
ton of other portions, just as leavened
paste communicates the peculiar action
of the leaven to other paste, and acts
precisely as the original lcaven. Thus
the more digestible meal, rich in starch
and gluten, greatly assists in the diges-
ton of the cellulose of the cOarser fod-
der, converting it into starch and then
sugar by the action of the ferment pro-
duced in it by the gastric food.-N \.
Times.
The very sweetest orange and the