The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-02-04
Live Stock.
THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY IN THE
SOUTH.
Feeding the Dairy Herd.

sd64sldO6OEy way ChIlS IOr skill ana
training of a not common kind.
In the beginning, think the reader
will agree with me that the MAJ jority
of us are feeding in manner pretty
much slip-shod and by guess. We
want the herd to pay us a good
profit, but decline TO give it any at
tention or care
Feeding the dairy herd by simply
guess work is neither business like
nor profitable. A man would soon
make an utter failure on locomo
tive if he knew nothing about con
trolling the engine or regulating the
steam. In other words, he is trained
to a certain extent in the funda
mental principles of locomotive prao.
tice. The successful feeder must
likewise be trained in the funda-
mental principles of feeding. If he
is very accomplished in the art,
then he can feed beef and sheep and
swine TO top the best markets in the
country, or he can feed the very
highly organized maohine-the cow
80 that she may produce three
pounds of butter in a day. What
are
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF
FEEDING?
If the reader will follow us, we will
try to be brief and plain in this dis
cussion.
In previous article we aaid the
plant fed from the air and the soil
and that the animal fed from the
plant and that the soil and air in
their turn got their constituents
from both plant and animal when
they died. We are interested here,
simplJs-in the relation of the plant to
the animal. The animal feeds from
the plant, we say. What does it get?
Those ingredients necessary for the
growth of the animal. When the
plant was growing it was simply
building tissue, and this tissue the
scientist olassifies as ash, water,
protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
That is all there is to these names
they simply stand for an ingredient
or constituent of the plant. These
have been made from the elements
of the air and soil like nitrogen,
phosphoric acid, potash, eto. The
animal cannot grow by being fed
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and pot
ash, but must be fed plant tissue or
animal tissue which has been built
by plant tissue. So without further
discussion, the food of the animal
consists of the plant; or ash,
water, protein, carbohydrates and
fat which make up the plant.
WHAT THESE CONSTITUENTS OF THE
PLANT DO.
I. Ash. The ash Of feeding stuff
is the part left after being burned
In an hundred parts of pasture grass
there are 3 5 pounds of ash. Indian
corn has only 1.5 pounds of ash in
hundred, while red clover hay has
SO pounds.
The reader readily recognized that
the ash in plants is necessary Tor the
ash in animals for making bones,
nails, horns, etc.
Because the plants ordinarily con-
tain, when fed in the variation they
usually are, sufficient quantity of
ash material, the feeder is not con-
cerned in furnishing ash material as
food.
II. Water. The water in plants
varies from rs per cent. in pasture
grass to as low as per cent. in some
-of the concentrated feeding stuffs.
Inasmuoh as the feeder does not
depend upon the water content OF
feed stutfs for water supply for the
animal, we can dismiss this matter
without further thought.
III. Protein. The protein of a food
stuff has nitrogen as it's basis. Is is
the part of plant that when fed to
animals goes to produce lean meat
in the animal, and blood, and nerves,
and organs, milk, and that class of
tissue in the animal. These parts of
the animal are produced only from
the protein of the food.
". Fat. Both plants and animals