CHAPTER XIV 



HOUSE-FEEDING OF CATTLE 1 



Classes of Foods Calorific System of Valuation Importance of Proteid 

 Wolff's Food Standards Balancing Food Ratios Vegetable 

 Proteid by Mitchell's Process Methods of Housing Dishorning 

 Time to House Regularity in Feeding Roots Concentrated Food 

 Necessity for Grooming Amount of Food to give M'Combie's 

 Method of Feeding Cost of Feeding per Week Experiments of 

 Lawes and Gilbert Calculation showing Food given, and return in 

 Beef Conclusion dealing with the Relations of Live-Weight to 

 Dead-WeightSelling by Live-WeightTable of Weights of Cattle 

 at Smithfield Gain in Eighteen Weeks of a Bullock, and Cost per 

 Live-weight Cwt. American and British Methods of cutting up 

 Beef Tables of Live and Dead-Weights of Fat Cattle Function of 

 Live Stock. 



T^OOD materials, exclusive of mineral matter (ash) and 

 water, are for convenience classified in two distinct 

 groups carbonaceous and nitrogenous. The former, includ- 

 ing starch, sugar, and fat, is employed in the animal economy 

 to produce heat and energy for immediate requirements, and 

 to create a reserve in the form of animal fat ; while the retro- 

 genous, or proteid constituent, is the muscle and tissue building 

 and repairing material. The latter possesses also the power to 

 produce heat and energy if required in the animal system, but 

 as the carbohydrates are far more plentiful, and in consequence 

 cheaper than proteid, an effort should be made to balance the 

 food so that the two groups may be induced to exercise their 

 relative functions in the most economical way. It is necessary 

 that some reliable system of relative valuation should be 

 clearly understood, as by the Calorific system of valuation, 

 now so generally employed, the two groups of material have 

 been assigned as heat producers the same value per unit of 

 weight, while their proper functions are distinct and separate. 

 A Calorie is the heat unit of the system, i.e., the amount of 

 heat used in raising one gram of water i C. : starch taken at 



1 See Appendix E for a statement of the breeds and ages of prize- 

 winning cattle at Smithfield. 



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