142 SCIENTIFIC FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



sive quantities of thin gruel-like foods cause weak- 

 ness of the digestive organs (p. 101). Horses and 

 sheep thrive best when the ration is in dry form, but 

 in some cases, e.g. when feeding potatoes, fiozen 

 and damaged roots, diseased straw, musty corn, 

 etc., cooking or steaming may fitly be employed. 

 With cattle it is somewhat different, for they do 

 well on steamed coarse fodder, or on other foods 

 which have been prepared in this way. For pigs, 

 cooked or steamed food is the principal article of 

 diet, and it has been shown that the increase of live 

 weight is then greater than when the same food is 

 given in crushed or ground form. As a rule such 

 preparation of the food is carried somewhat too far, 

 for it should be reserved for those materials which 

 are difficult of digestion in the crude state, or which 

 show unpleasant after-effects. In all cases par- 

 ticular care should be taken that the mangers are 

 scrupulously clean. 



4. The roasting of food-stuffs is very seldom done 

 owing to the losses in digestible nutrients, but 

 occasionally where a food has become musty or 

 mouldy, or otherwise attacked by fungi, it may be 

 usefully employed. Roasting also serves to destroy 

 the unpleasant-tasting substances in horse chestnuts 

 and lupine seeds. 



5. Feeding-stuffs are sometimes steeped in water 

 in order to get rid of some soluble constituents which 

 are objectionable. Potatoes, for example, are cut 



