496 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the while and with prudent haste, and of selling them at a relatively 

 early age will be abundantly apparent. 



ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. 



Should development be arrested in whole or in part at anytime 

 before it is completed, the capacity for future development is weak- 

 ened and in proportion to the degree to which development was 

 hindered. 



When the hindrance to development is slight and covers but a 

 short period, the injury resulting may be so slight as to be imper- 

 ceptible, notwithstanding, time is lost in completing development 

 and there is also a proportionate loss in the food of maintenance. 

 If the arrested development has been prolonged and severe, in ad- 

 dition to a proportionate delay in completed development and a 

 proportionate loss in the food of maintenance, there will also be a 

 proportionate loss in the capacity for future development. Feed 

 the animal ever so well, subsequently, and it will never wholly regain 

 what has been lost. In other words, the same profit can never again 

 be made from growing the animal that would otherwise have been 

 possible. If the arrested development has been exceedingly severe, 

 then the loss of capacity to develop may be so great as to preclude 

 the possibility of making any profit from rearing the animal under 

 any conditions however favorable. It should also be remembered 

 that the loss of capacity for future development is greatest when 

 arrested development occurs near the birth period, and gradually 

 grows less as it is receded from. The importance, therefore, of 

 keeping animals pushing on with a prudential haste from the day of 

 birth until development is completed, or until they are ready for the 

 block, cannot be easily overestimated. 



Arrested development may arise, of course, from various sources. 

 It may come from insufficient or unsuitable food, or food both in- 

 sufficient and unsuitable, also from food excessive in supply and 

 nutrition, or from under exposure, or from several of these, and it 

 may be the other causes combined. It would be too much to claim 

 that the source of arrested development did not influence the loss 

 of capacity referred to, but it would not be claiming too much to say, 

 that whatever the source, the loss in capacity to develop will be 

 serious whenever prolonged periods of stagnation occur in the early 

 growth of the animal. The unsatisfactory development, subse- 

 quently, of the ill-cared-for whey fed calf furnishes an illustration. 



OVERFEEDING DURING GROWTH. 



When food is feed exactly adapted to the needs of a young and 

 growing animal, it would not be easily possible to injure the animal 

 by overfeeding, but it would, of course, be easily possible to waste 

 food through careless feeding. Exact adaptation has reference to 

 feeding foods in due balance both with regard to chemical constitu- 

 ents and proper adjustment between the concentrated food fed and 

 the roughage. With some foods, adaptation is so perfect that ani- 

 mals feeding upon them will not injure themselves and will at the 

 same time make satisfactory development in the line sought. This 

 is true of rich pastures grazed in summer and of clover and alfalfa 

 hay fed in winter. Other foods fed at will may be seriously harmful, 

 in fact, positively dangerous, while at the same time they are help- 



