FEEDING DIET OF OX. 549 



which the ox is not fed for labour, but for the market, the 

 amount of flesh-formers in the above standard of the food of 

 the labouring ox should be diminished by 18 ounces that is, 

 the daily amount of the flesh-formers should be 43.95- 18.4 

 - 25.55 ; or, to take Playfair's number, 38.6 - 18.4, or 20.2 oz. 

 This would be accomplished if the beans were taken away, and 

 about 8 Ib. of the mangold-wurzel that is, nearly a sixth part 

 of the 50 Ib. of that food. It must not be forgotten, however, 

 that, along with the diminution of unnecessary flesh-forming 

 principles, there is also a reduction in the amount of heat and 

 fat givers to the extent of the proportion of the heat and fat 

 givers in the 3 Ib. of beans and the 8 Ib. of mangold-wurzel 

 curtailed ; thus 



Mangold-wurzel, 100 : 12.4 : : (8 Ib.) 128 : 17 oz. heat and fat-givers. 

 Beans, . 100 : 54.5 : : (3 Ib.) 48 : 26 oz. 



or, in all, 43 oz. of heat and fat givers. 



It has been already remarked more than once that the usual 

 object of feeding the ox in this country is not for labour, but 

 for the market ; hence some other standard of his daily food 

 must be sought out than that used above in comparing the 

 labour and food of the horse with the labour and food of the 

 ox. Oxen vary in size and breed, also in some other particu- 

 lars, on which the appropriate quantity of food in each case 

 materially depends. The live weight, as it is called, of a good 

 fat ox that is, its weight when alive approaches, on an 

 average, to 1200 Ib. The mean weight of sixteen heifers and 

 bullocks was found by Lawes and Gilbert to be 1141 Ib. The 

 mean weight of eleven fat bullocks was 1182 Ib. The mean 

 weight of two fat heifers was 853 Ib. The mean weight of 

 two fat calves was 250 Ib. 



The following table, drawn from the same authorities, exhi- 

 bits the component materials of the bodies of the ox at differ- 



