130 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



with fat, and is not nearly so concentrated a product. In fact, 

 fat is the most completely dried out and most concentrated animal 

 product we have. 



In the whole realm of animals, when one is required by nature 

 to store up energy in a compact and concentrated form, either for 

 making long journeys without food, as is the case with the drome- 

 dary; to subsist a long time without food in winter, as is the case 

 with the bear and other wild animals; or the fortifying of the 

 mother with young at side against the lack of food for the pro- 

 duction of milk by the drying up of the ranges, and so forth, and so 

 on, the form in which this energy is stored is always fat. This 

 is true the world over with all classes of animals, both wild and 

 domestic. 



The younger the animal, the larger the proportion of its gain 

 in weight, is growth, and the smaller the proportion that is fat. 

 There . is nothing, so far as we know, to indicate that a young 

 animal can manufacture fat from feed and store it up at any less 

 expense than an older animal. A pound of fat contains a definite 

 number of units of energy, and requires perhaps the same quantity 

 of feed to produce it in one animal as in another of the same species 

 and in the same condition. It is self-evident, therefore, that the 

 greater the proportion of the total gain is of cheap material, the 

 cheaper will the total gain become. 



It is a fact of perhaps considerable importance in this 

 connection that the younger animals eat more in proportion to 

 their live weight than do older animals, and, therefore, have a 

 larger proportion of their daily ration to use for the production 

 of growth or fat. Or, to state it differently, doubtless a smaller 

 proportion of their ration is required for mere maintenance. 

 Whether these are all or even the principal causes, the fact of most 

 importance remains unchanged, viz., that the cost increases with 

 the age of the animal. 



ADVANCE IN COST OF GAIN DUE TO AGE GREATLY EXAGGERATED. 



The earlier figures on the saving from feeding the animals young, 

 or in favor of making baby beef, were really startling to contem- 

 plate. In the face of these figures, it was absolutely certain that 

 the man who fed anything except young animals was committing 

 a stupendous blunder. The difficulty was the failure on the part 

 of those who made the experiment to distinguish between the effect 

 of age as distinguished from that of condition or fatness. In these 



