1906.] FEEDING FARM ANIMALS. ' 247 



consumed at will may destroy^a young animal, while a suitable 

 amount fed from day to day with other food adjuncts would 

 be decidedly helpful. 



Injury from excessive feeding of meal to young animals 

 most commonly occurs when they are less than one year old. 

 During the milk period, young calves will seldom, if indeed 

 ever, injure themselves by feeding ever so freely on a meal ra- 

 tion composed of ground oats and wheat bran fed in equal parts 

 by weight, nor are they likely to injure themselves subsequently 

 on such food with suitable fodder adjuncts. The reference 

 here is to animals grown for micat. But a time comes when 

 so much of the meal would be consumed that it is unprofitable 

 to feed it longer at will. But suppose instead of the meals 

 mentioned, corn was used, or rye, or a mixture of these, a 

 time would come when development would be checked, if not 

 positively arrested. The too concentrated character of the 

 food in conjunction with the excessive amount fed has over- 

 taxed the digestive and assimilative organs to the extent of 

 weakening them it may be permanently. 



When the animals are being grown for milk production the 

 properties concerned in future milk production may be weak- 

 ened by such feeding before the point has been reached when 

 the digestive organs become impaired. The injury may come 

 from the influence which the food has exercised on assimila- 

 tion. It has strengthened the digestive habit of utilizing the 

 food in making fat and the influence in this direction is felt even 

 after the female has begun to produce milk. It is possible, 

 however, if not indeed probable, that this thought has been 

 carried too far in the rearing of dairy heifers. 



When animals are so forced during the finishing period 

 by feeding so much strong meal that they get oflf their feed, 

 that is, lose appetite in whole or in part, the danger point has 

 been reached. The digestion has been more or less impaired. 

 Cessation in feeding the meal or the grain that has caused the 

 trouble is the remedy. In many instances, however, subse- 

 quent gains will be less than they would have been had the 

 digestion not been thus impaired. 



It is also true that dairy cows under high pressure feeding 

 may have the milk giving function weakened in the absence of 

 any syniptom of indigestion, results from sheer overwork. 

 The machinery of digestion has been driven at a speed so high 



