The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-04-26
FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF LIVE STOCK.
uI.-Feeding Rations.

din " oAcASO wv liz OH il GuO Jd1h
about n~utritive ~rations, and about feeding stand
ards is mere foolishness. I hope this is not the
case with the readers of The Progressive Farmer.
There is no doubt that there has been a good
many things said about the feeding of our live
stock that has not been practical, but yet the
application of a few primary principles to feeding
are not out of place, since they simply suggest
the way that practical feeders are doing things.
In other words, to-day we are using such terms as
suggested above simply because they express the
best there is in the known subject of feeding.
W. might say that our feeding stufs contain
five different classes of materials in them.
The first is the protein, or that part of the feed
ing stuff that goes to produce lean meat in the
body, makes blood, builds new tissue, and carries
on the daily processes in the animal body.
A second group is called the carbohydrates, or
the starchy materials. These are concerned in fur
nishing heat and fat and energy. They represent
simply that part of hay and corn and potatoes
and bread that go to keep the body warm, produc-
ing energy for work and fat where the animal
enlarges.
A third group includes the oil or fatty part of
the plant. Cottonseed has a good deal of fat or
oil. Corn has a moderate amount. Now this
constituent, like starch, when fed to animals,
furnishes heat, energy and fat. Since it is more
concentrated than the starchy materials it is able
to furnish more than twice as much heat, or fat,
or energy, than an equal quantity of starch or
sugar.
The fourth group of materials found in our
feeding stuffs is the mineral substances. These
go to make teeth and bones, and even contribute
to the muscle and flesh. We are not concerned
with the mineral materials in feeding our farm
animals because, as a rule, whatever feeding stuffs
we give contain a sufficient quantity of mineral
matter to supply the needs of the body. We are
often thoughtless, however, when we go to feed
our own children. We take the bran from the
wheat and give it to our cattle and pigs and give
only the soft white part of the wheat to our
children, which is liking in mineral materials.
This is often the way with a good deal of our
food. That explains why our children often
have poor teeth and weak bones. / hope that
as we go over these articles we will be just as
much concerned in the proper feeding OF our
children as we are with the feeding of our pigs
and calves. In fact, everything that is said here
applies just as much to the feeding of human
kind as to the feeding of domesticated animals.
A fifth and last group of materials in feeding
stuffs is water-just plain, common water. We
dismiss this when it comes to feeding because
the water can be furnished by the brook or we'll,
and we do not need depend for it upon materials
we feed to the animals.
We, therefore, find that we have five materials
in a feeding stuff: protein, carbohydrates, fat
ash and water. We are concerned, however, only
with the first three of these because the other two
are readily supplied or they are already in sufhci-
ent quantities. We must have protein then to
make muscle, tissue and blood; we must have the
starchy materials and fat to keep the body warm