XEGLECTED POI^'TS IN STOCK FEEDIXG. 603 



There can be little doubt that animals can in course of time 

 accustom themselves to circumstances, and it is noticed in South 

 Africa that osteoporosis is more likely to occur among imported 

 horses and mules than among those bred in the country. 



Probably it is to the wide use of a purely cereal diet that the 

 lightness of bone of the South. African-bred horses is largely due, 

 while another contributory cause may be the scarcity of clovers and 

 other leguminous plants in the pasturage, for these plants, which are 

 so abundant in certain hmestone districts — e.g., Ireland — are, as is 

 seen from the above tables, particularly rich in lime as compared 

 with phosphorus pentoxide. 



It is obvious, from the above considerations, that the writer 

 would recommend that animals should never be fed on a diet of 

 .cereals only, but that some of the plants containing a high ratio of 

 lime to pho.<phorus pentoxide should replace a portion of the so-much- 

 used oaten hay. 



II. — Supply of Other Min'eral Substaxce;?. 



Emphasis has been laid upon the two constituents, lime and 

 phosphorus pentoxide, because their effect upon bone formation has 

 been studied in detail, but there can be no doubt that the same 

 considerations apply to many other inorganic constituents of foods, 

 of whose action little is known. 



The necessity of supplj-ing chlorine to animals is well realised in 

 many districts, for in some cases the food stuff's used are so deficient 

 in this constituent that it is essential that the animals be supplied 

 with common salt, often in the form of '" licks.'" Such licks contain 

 common salt as their chief ingredient, but in addition, sulphur, 

 ferrous sulphate, and other substances are sometimes added. 



Doubtless, too, an adequate supply of potassium (fortunately 

 nearly always abundant in vegetable matter), fluorine, iron, mag- 

 nesium, iodine, and other elements is essential to the perfect working 

 of the digestive mechanism of the animal and to proper growth and 

 nutrition, but little is as yet known on these points. 



To animals receiving a varied diet, composed of many food 

 stuffs, the probability of their being supplied with all necessary 

 substances is great, but when they are kept on one or two kinds of 

 food only, it must often liappen that they are insufficiently supplied 

 with certain constituents, without which the proper formation of the 

 tissues and secretions of the body cannot occur. 



In such cases, the growth and health of the animals must suffer. 



]Methods of Makixg Good Deficiexcies. 



Tlie most effective way of overcoming the troubles arising from 

 lack of mineral matters in the diet, v/ould be to substitute a varied 

 diet for the former monotonous one, and thus increase the chances 

 cf the necessary inorganic matter being supplied. 



In the case of animals fed upon oaten hay and maize, the replace- 

 ment of a portion of the food by leguminous liays, or even by 

 meadow hay, would effect this so far as the stipply of lime and 



