PROBLEMS OF ANIMAL XUTRITION.« 



Henry Prentiss Armsby, LL. D., 

 Director Pcinisulcaiiia Experiment Station. 



Farm animals are kejDt substantially for two purposes — for the 

 production of work and for the production of human food. 



x\s regards work production, while it is true that horses and other 

 work animals are being replaced to a greater or less extent by other 

 prime motors, such as steam, gasoline and alcohol engines, and the 

 electric motor, such replacement has not yet become possible on the 

 small farm or for anj^thing like all the purposes for which work ani- 

 mals are kept. The production of work is still, and is likely to con- 

 tinue to be, an important branch of animal husbandry. 



The twelfth census gives the number of horses and mules over two 

 years old in the United States as, in round numbers, eighteen and 

 one-fourth million, worth one thousand million dollars. Estimating 

 that these animals w^ork on the average only four hours per day and 

 generate three-fourths of a nominal horsepower each, we have the 

 equivalent of the continuous production, night and day, of over two 

 and one-fourth million horsepower, wdiich is nearly one-third the 

 total estimated horsepower of Niagara Falls and many times what is 

 actually utilized. 



Notwithstanding the importance of the animal as a prime motor, 

 however, it is as a source of human food that he finds his principal 

 place in American agriculture. 



It is estimated l)y competent authority that over forty-five per cent 

 of the food consumption of the better classes in the United States 

 consists of animal and dairy products. Taking into account the 

 relatively higher prices of these materials it seems safe to estimate 

 that considerably more than half of the expenditure of the average 

 family for food goes for this class of materials. Moreover, what- 

 ever, in the light of recent discussion, may be our attitude toward 

 vegetarianism, or our judgment as to the necessary proteid supp^v, 

 it is certainly a fact, however we may explain it, that those peoples 

 are, as a wdiole, most efficient which consume a reasonable proportion 

 of animal food. 



« Read before the section on experiment station worlc at the Baton Rouge 

 convention of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experi- 

 ment Stations. November, 1906. 



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