No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 497 



ful when fed with due regulation. For instance, one feed of rye meal 

 consumed at will may destroy a young animal, while a suitable 

 amount fed from day to day with other food adjuncts would be 

 decidedly helpful. 



Injury from excessive feeding of meal to young animals mosl cum 

 monly occurs when they are less than one year old. During the milk 

 period, young calves will seldom, if indeed ever, injure themselves 

 by feeding, ever so freely, on a meal ration composed of ground oats 

 and wheat bran fed in equal parts by weight, nor are they likely to 

 injure themselves subsequently on such food with suitable fodder 

 adjuncts. The reference here is to animals grown for meat. But a 

 time comes when so much of the meal would be consumed that it is 

 unprofitable to feed it longer at will. But suppose instead of the 

 meal mentioned, corn was used, or rye, or a mixture of these, a time 

 would come when development would be checked if not positively 

 arrested. The too concentrated character of the food in conjunction 

 with excessive amount fed has overtaxed the digestive and assimila- 

 tive organs to the extent of weakening them, it may be permanently. 



When the animals are being grown for milk production, the pro- 

 perties concerned in future milk production may be weakened by 

 such feeding before the point has been reached when the digestive 

 organs become impaired. The injury may come from the influence 

 which the food has exercised on assimilation. It has strengthened 

 the digestive habit of utilizing the food in making fat and the in- 

 fluence in this direction is felt even after the female has begun to 

 produce milk. It is possible, however, if not indeed probable, that 

 this thought has been carried too far in the rearing of dairy heifers. 



When animals are so forced during the finishing period by feeding 

 so much strong meal that they get off their feed, that is lose appe- 

 tite in whole or in part, the danger point has been reached. The 

 digestion has been more or less impaired. Cessation in feeding the 

 meal or the grain that has caused the trouble is the remedy. In 

 many instances, however, subsequent gains will be less than they 

 would have been had the digestion not been thus impaired. 



It is also true that dairy cows under high-pressure feeding may 

 have the milk-giving function weakened in the absence of any symp- 

 tom of indigestion, resulting from sheer overwork. The machinery 

 of digestion has been driven at a speed so high and so continuous, 

 that the wear has been excessive, although there has been no break- 

 ing down in any part thereof. The limit of the period of high useful- 

 ness in a dairy cow may thus be easily and materially shortened. 



SELL ANIMALS WHEN RIPE. 



Animals that are being fed for the block are ripe when, under 

 normal conditions of feeding, they cease to make material gains. 

 If kept longer the larger portion of the food is given at a loss. 

 The loss may soon become serious, for, under such conditions they 

 may continue to consume large quantities of food. Such ripeness 

 is indicated by a firmness of the flesh under gentle pressure or by 

 marked falling off in the gains under suitable conditions of feeding. 

 In an experiment conducted under my personal supervision, pork 

 during the fattening period, was made up to a certain paint at a 

 cost of approximately four cents per pound, whereas during sub- 



32—6—1905 



