ANIMAL GROWTH AND NUTRITION. 227 



one of growth. Two younger and lighter ones ate more, and 

 required only seven pounds and seven-tenths hay to make 

 one of growth. 



Five experiments with steers weighing seven hundred and 

 fifty pounds gave a consumption of two and six-tenths 

 per cent of live weight daily, and nineteen pounds and a 

 quarter hay for one of growth. In a multitude of experi- 

 ments with steers of weights varying from eight hundred 

 to eleven hundred pounds, they would eat two and five- 

 tenths per cent, or less, of Timothy-hay, and gain about 

 a pound a day, requiring still more hay to make a pound 

 of growth. The gain per day has not, in summer or winter, 

 varied much with our animals of differing ages, but is gen- 

 erally greater with young animals; as a study of English 

 lists of premium cattle, and those of the great cattle-show 

 held at Chicago for a few years past, will make evident. 

 The great cattle-show at Islington for 1879 revealed the fol- 

 lowing figures: Up to two and a half years of age the 

 shorthorns grew two and six-hundredths pounds daily ; from 

 two and a half to three and a half years, one and seventy- 

 nine hundredths pounds were made ; and from three and 

 a half to four and a half years, one and sixty-two hun- 

 dredths pounds only of daily growth were made. At the 

 last Chicago fair, larger growths were reported, but the 

 same general facts were revealed. It will not fail to be 

 noticed, that, while the larger animal grows less per day, 

 this lessened growth is made upon an increased consumption 

 of foods ; as, in instances cited from our College Farm exper- 

 iments, less hay to calves (seven pounds and seven-tenths) 

 were required to make a pound of growth than would be 

 required to maintain the existence of a thousand-pound 

 steer. I find that such a steer will require as food of sup- 

 port, upon which no gain will be made, about eighteen 

 pounds of hay a day, or over twice the amount required 

 to make a pound of gain on young things. As it is by no 

 means wholly a question of age, but more largely of increased 

 weight, that cost of beef or pork increases as age and weight 

 increases, the objection has to be met, that price increases 

 with size, and that a certain size is necessary. This is all 

 true ; but it should stimulate to the breeding or selection of a 

 type of cattle that will bring the highest market rates on the 



