No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 493 



vania only about two days, and I am not going to tell you intelligent 

 farmers in Pennsylvania how you ought to feed your stock, for you 

 know better than I; but with your permission I will try to do this: 

 I will try to talk about some of the principles that must be ob- 

 served in feeding live stock, and if I give those principles correctly, 

 it will lie with you farmers to take those principles and apply them 

 in doing the work on your farms. 



The following is Prof. Shaw's address: 



FEEDING FARM ANIMALS. 



By Thomas Shaw, Professor of Animal Husbandry, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn. 



The successful feeding of farm animals is never the result of 

 accident. It is the outcome of giving food and care more or less in 

 conformity with the leading principles that govern such work. The 

 measure of the success will be the measure of the fidelity with 

 which these principles have been observed. True, the individual 

 who thus succeeds may not be able to formulate those principles, 

 but he unconsciously follows them all the same, or success would 

 not crown his efforts. In the absence of formulated principles, the 

 individual must learn from the experience of some one else; in their 

 presence he has a safe guide, in the absence of experience, although 

 experience is necessary to enable him to apply them in the most 

 successful manner. 



The following are chief among the leading principles that govern 

 the successful rearing and feeding of farm animals: 



LEADING PRINCIPLES. 



1. They must possess quality before they can be fed and reared 

 with marked success. 



2. 'More food is required to make a given gain as the birth period 

 is receded from. 



3. When periods of stagnation occur before maturity, the food of 

 maintenance, fed during such periods, brings little or no return. 



4. When development is seriously arrested at any period before 

 its completion, the feeding quality of the animal is affected ad- 

 versely. 



5. When development is unduly forced by stimulating foods while 

 the animal is young, its feeding qualities are injured. 



6. In the fattening process, when animals are so ripened that 

 they crave to make good gains, further feeding can only be done 

 at a loss. 



7. In selecting a ration for feeding, a due regard must be had to 

 the chemical constituents of the food or foods which compose it. 



8. In nearly all instances a mixed diet is superior to one composed 

 of any one food. 



9. In fattening animals the profit or loss resulting is largely in- 

 fluenced by the cost of the animals up to the time when the fatten- 

 ing begins. 



