4SM ANNUAL REPOKT OK T1IIC Off. Dim: 



10. Pregnant auimals should be maintained in a good uuiiditiou of 

 flesh. 



11. Wlicii animals are exposed to temperatures below what is 

 normal, additional food, proportioned to the degree of fhe expoguro. 

 will be necessary to restore animal heat. 



12. Discomfort from any sort arrests development, and const-, 

 queutly, produces loss in proportion to the degree and continuity of 

 the same. 



QUALITY IN FARM ANIMALS. 



Quality when applied to farm animals is comprehensive or other- 

 wise as the term is defined. More commonly it has reference to 

 handling the skin and flesh, especially of cattle. When thus applied 

 it has reference mainly to the sensation conveyed to the mind 

 through the sense of touch. Its presence is usually sought by 

 touching certain portions of the body with the finger-tips to ascer- 

 tain the depth of the covering, and by grasping the skin over the 

 ribs within the hand to ascertain its looseness and flexibility. A 

 good depth of elastic flesh relatively over the portions that are more 

 difficult to cover, as the loin and shoulder-blade, and loose pliant 

 skin are indicative of good digestive qualities, as they are the out- 

 come of these. 



As used here, however, quality is used in a wider sense, that is to 

 say in the sense of capacity for well-doing as indicated by the 

 breeding and form in addition to the handling. The breeding of 

 animals has of course an important influence on their feeding quali- 

 ties. As a rule, well-chosen, pure bred animals of the beef breeds 

 will make greater gains and more rapid gains from a given amount 

 of food than will common stocks of mixed and inferior breeding, or 

 than animals of the various dairy breeds. This statement has been 

 denied, and some of the experiments conducted by the experiment 

 stations would seem to favor such denial. Other experiments tend 

 to sustain the opposite view. Of the correctness of the stand taken, 

 however, I have not the shadow of a doubt. Good digestive and 

 assimilative qualities are as much a matter of transmission as quali- 

 ties or properties that relate to form. 



The possession of correct form is, of course, immensely important. 

 The precise nature of such form will be largely dependent on the 

 precise object for which the animals are reared. In meat-making 

 animals it usually means much relative width and depth, and fore 

 and hind quarters well-balanced as to weight. In milk-giving ani- 

 mals it means much capacity of barrel and various other accompani- 

 ments which cannot be mentioned here. 



The difference in capacity of animals similar in age, breeding and 

 form, to digest and assimilate food, is very great. It varies in some 

 instances between 50 and 100 per cent. One steer being fattened 

 will sometimes gain but little more than one pound a day, whereas 

 another steer will gain two pounds per day on practically the same 

 food. But the difference in returns in meat-making animals as the 

 result of form is no less great. One cattle beast possessed of correct 

 form will sell for 5 cents per pound alive, when another fed for as 

 long a period will only sell for three cents, tbo difference heins 

 bnsed entirelv. or almost entirelv. on form 



