6 



with this feeding question. I cannot see where it comes in at alh 

 Again, you said in Lesson No. 7 that animal manure is that part of 

 the food which the stomacli cannot use. I do not see where the 

 chemist has made any allowance in his tables for the undigested 

 part of the grain and hay which we feed. Just one more question. 

 You liave shown that there are two sides to this feeding problem : 

 one is, what the animal needs ; the other is, what the food supplies. 

 Now how am I to know what and how much my animals need ? 

 How did John know? 



My Dear Sir : 



You are a shrewd farmer. It is a pleasure to answer the ques- 

 tions of a man who takes such an intelligent interest in the subject. 

 I wonder if it would be more plain to you if I should say "bulk" 

 instead of " total dry matter." It is possible to put all the nourish- 

 ment in the food which you eat during a day into a few very small 

 tablets. Do you not think this would be a great saving of time and 

 labor ? You could eat the tablets while at work and would not need 

 to stop for dinner. But how long would you live on such a diet ? 

 In the same way you could feed all the muscle-making and fat- 

 making food which your cows need in a comparatively small amount 

 of gluten feed and corn meal : but you know the cows would not be 

 likely to thrive long on such high living. The reason in both cases 

 is that the food of inost animals must he hulky enough to distend 

 the stomach and give the digestive organs plenty of room to worh. 

 It is natural for a cow to eat a large amount of coarse fodder, much 

 of w^hich is indigestible and is cast off as manure. In selecting a 

 ration for animals, therefore, one of the very first things to look out 

 for is to make it bulky enough ; and the column of " dry matter" 

 will help us in this. We usually depend upon hay and fodder for 

 most of the bulk of the ration and add grains to make it concen- 

 trated enough for our purpose. There is also a danger of making 

 the ration too bulky. Clover hay alone is nearly a balanced ration 

 for milch cows ; yet the cows would have to eat so much of it in 

 order to get all the food they need that their stomachs would be 

 unduly distended. Have you ever noticed how " pot-bellied " a 

 horse gets if fed on hay alone ? 



554 



