The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1910-03-02

HnImaIs Town TO coarse FODDER
That Human Beings Cannot Assimi-
Iate-DecIare We Would Save on Big
Percentage of Food.
DR.. Henry Prentice Armsby of State
College, Pa, who is n great expert i'm
animal nutrition. says we waste too
much good food on our animals and
that we should use grain ourselves
and grow coarse fodder for our ami.
mails. BY so doing we would save
largely on As per cent of our daily
fAOd, and that ought to have lot of
effect on high prices.
The Armsby program is simple
enough. 1t amounts to little more
than this: That the time has come for
the American people to begin eating
the food that they have been throwing
to the steers and the hogs and work
out a new ration for the animals. And
yet that idea when worked out means
that millions of bushels of grain that
now go into the nations animal food
available for human consumption and
that we will have the beef and the
butter and the cheese as well.
As DR.. Armsby casually tells it:
you see, we are already confronted
with food problem, and one of. the
potent factors toward its solution is
to ascertain more economic ration
for cattle. We must learn how to OBJ
tain animal food and dairy products
by feeding cattle on a ration that con-
tains nothing that can be assimilated
by human beings-that is, we must
utilize our grain crops for mans con-
sumption entirely and feed cattle on
coarse folders not palatable to human
beings. Animal food and dairy prod
ucts make up 40 per cent of the food
consumed by the people of the United
States. By using cheaper ration for
animals we will get that 40 per cent
of our daily food cheaper and thereby
relieve in measure the ordinary wage
Garner Of his fight to feed his family"
All very plausible, all simple enough
to hear it told, but a program that
has not been worked out in its details
"a program that DR.. Armsby has.
however, advanced further than per
h9ps any other scientist.
Steer In CaIorinneter.
The experiment is centered around n
calorimeter and a steer. The steer is
just steer The calorimeter suggests
In appearance huge refrigerator. The
box consists of an inner chamber of
sheet copper that can be tightly closed.
surrounded by two wooden walls. leav-
ing a dead air space of about four
inches between. 1t is in the closed in
ner chamber. lighted by plate glass
windows and supplied by a constant
current Of pure air, that the State Col
lege steer, which may become historic
lives.
The temperature of the chamber can
be regulated to the hundredth part OF
a degree. Every physical change with
in it can be weighed down to the hun
dredth part of an ounce. The amount
of food energy given off in heat IS
measured. the amount of food energy
used for mere physical upkeep is meas
ured, and the rate of growth is meas
ured. The experiments show exactly
what proportion of the food energy of
each ration can be used by the animal
to produce meat or milk or work and
how much is simply used up in heat
ing the surrounding atmosphere.
A Saving of Millions of Dollars.
The practical man, however is inter
ested in results, not mechanism What
do all these experiments amount to? |
Where do they lead? They lead to an
era of cheaper production, says DR..
Armsby. They amount to this: What |
On Armsby can do others can do after
him, and already the State College ex-
periments have laid the basis for an |
economy in animal rations that if APP |
piled throughout the nation would |
mean a saving of millions.
GAS the density OF population and |
the demand for breadstuffs increase"
says DR.. Armsby 1.-THE stock feeder is |
constrained to use the cheaper by |
product feeds in place of grain. From
the economic viewpoint, then. it is
highly important that that portion of
our national wealth represented by |
these inedible products should be util-
lied to the best advantage, yielding
more liberal supply of food to the con-
sumner.
thus, you understand. the calori-
meter is showing us how to conserve
our grain to feed the men. women and
children of the country by eliminating
it entirely from the ration of cattle
and substituting In its stead present
fodder crops. new fodder crops and
more grain bvnro1uctS'