Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1894-03-08
INTELLIGENT FEEDING.
Sknlfnl Feeders DO Not Alternately Starve
and Stun,

vance Is the better understanding that
now prevails among progressive farm
ers about the feeding of domestic ami
mails. 1t is true that a large part of the
food that used to be given to stock was
either wasted or was positively injuri-
Gus. 1t is yet, for that matter, among
the large class who give little thought
to their business and despise the teach
ing of newspapers and experimental sta
tons. To alternately starve and stuff
animals used to be considered inevi-
table. 1t was the condition of nature,
and it was argued that wild animals i'll
a state of nature usually maintained
good health. Those who argued for bet
ter feeding than natures method were
told that what was gained in tieshmak-
ing was likely to be offset by weaker
constitution, and often by an impair
ment of the digestive functions.
That this was sometimes the fact is
true. The science of feeding has been
of comparatively recent growth, and to
feed in the best manner animals whose
digestion has already been injured re-
quires more skill than most feeders
possess. We are at last learning that
for the very best feeding animals must
be guarded against injudicious food
from birth, and even earlier than this.
1t is possible certainly to stunt pigs be-
fore their birth, and it is often done
when breeding sows are fed too much
corn. They are apt in such case to far
row pigs whose digestion seems to be
impaired even from birth. Generally,
however, young animals have good APP
petites and are able to digest what ma
ture has provided for them. The first
milk they get from their dams is al
ways laxative, and the weakness of very
young animals insures them against get
ting more at first than is good for them.
In fact, for number CT days after
birth, sucking their dam provides the
kind and amount of food that is best
the young animal. 1t is when the nat
ural supply becomes insufficient that the
injury to digestion begins. Either the
young animal is left with too little, or
it is apt to be greatly overfed, or fed
with what is too hard to digest. Of the
two evils, underfeeding is the smaller.
There were farmers who studied out
this problem of feeding before the days
of scientific analysis. Their reasoning
was that good feeding required as near
ly as possible continuation of the feed
ing which young animals received from
their dams, the amount fed being grad
ually increased as the animal became
stronger. The digestive organs. like
all others in the body, are strengthened
by use and weakened or injured by
abuse. What is called dyspepsia almost
nately starving and pampering, or the
giving of food that is difficult of diges-
ton. Sometimes the trouble with di-
gestion is that the food is not properly
balanced. The natural appetite calls
for the kind of food that the system re-
auires. If this is not furnished, any SUBJ
stitute for it will be eaten less heartily,
will not receive its due proportion of
saliva and will not digest we'll.
The analysis of food showing its diff
ferent constituents has only made more
plain the reasons for the success of
some old fashioned feeders and the fail
are of others. By showing what ratlons
tor growth, for fattening and for milk
are required it has made it possible for
all to be reasonably successful. There is
far less feeding of corn to young or to
breeding animals than used to be com
mon. When corn is fed now, it is in
combination with less concentrated
forms of food and those having more O!
the flesh, muscle and bone forming lril-
terial than has corn. There is far MOI,
use of fine wheat middlings as cor
receive of the excessive carbonaceous
coInmeal, and also as an aid to better
digestion. than many farmers imagine,
II they are fattening animals, they Of
ten suppose that the more concentrated
fattening food they can get eaten the
better will be the result. But skillful
feeders know better. 1t is not what is
eaten, but what is digested and assimi-
lated, that benefits the fattening animal.
With a balanced ration and some bulky
food to distend the stomach, the fatten-
ing animal will eat more and maintain
its appetite, which it will not do if fed
only on the most fattening food
American Cultivator.