202 THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



said to have acquired knowledge in regard to feeding 

 animals : 



1. The observation of ordinary .practice. 



2. Practical experiments, so called. 



3. Scientific investigation. 



289. Conclusions from feeding practice. Until within 

 recent years, the practice of cattle-feeding has been 

 entirely governed by the conclusions drawn from ordi- 

 nary practice. Among the many men engaged in animal 

 husbandry, certain ones possessed of more than average 

 powers of observation and business ability have secured 

 good results with certain feeding-stuffs and methods of 

 feeding, and their practice has been accepted by their 

 neighbors with no further demonstration than that these 

 successful farmers sold fat cattle and obtained large 

 returns from the dairy. During the centuries that man 

 has had domestic animals under his care, certain results 

 have appeared to follow from certain systems of feeding 

 or the use of certain foods, and upon these so-called 

 practical observations the feeder has built his creed. 



In these ways there have come to be accepted, some- 

 times locally and sometimes generally, standards of 

 feeding as to quantity, kind of ration, and times of feed- 

 ing. At the same time, it was necessary only to attend 

 a farmers' convention fifty years ago to become con- 

 vinced of a great variety of opinions as to the best 

 methods of practice. In fact, opinion was the court of 

 last resort. There were then no known, well-estab- 

 lished fundamentals to which appeal could be made as 

 a basis for discussion. While many false notions were 

 entertained, many of the beliefs then prevailing were 

 undoubtedly correct or contained a germ of truth. It 

 is generally safe to assume that when an opinion is 



