66 Feeds and Feeding. 



in the food. This was fully 25 per ct. of all the lime in her body, 

 including the skeleton, at the beginning of the trial. (604) 



Such withdrawal of mineral matter from the skeleton produces 

 porosity and brittleness of bone. In certain localities where the 

 hay and other roughages are especially low in lime and phos- 

 phorus, 1 farm animals are so affected by the lack of these mineral 

 substances that their bones are broken easily and in seemingly in- 

 explicable ways, serious losses often occurring. Often this brittle- 

 ness of bone is noticeable only in years when the normal absorp- 

 tion of lime and phosphorus by the roots of plants is hindered by 

 drought. Of grown animals, those carrying their young are most 

 apt to suffer from the lack of these substances, since considerable 

 amounts are deposited in the fetus. Growing animals whose bones 

 are rapidly increasing in size suffer from a lack of lime or phos- 

 phorus sooner than grown animals. Voit 2 found that young ani- 

 mals receiving a ration low in lime are soon attacked by rickets, 

 the joints swelling, the limbs and the spinal column becoming 

 crooked, the teeth remaining small and soft, the animal finally be- 

 ing unable to walk. Pigs, because of restricted diet, suffer from 

 insufficient lime and phosphorus more often than do calves, colts, 

 and lambs, which usually receive enough of these mineral matters 

 in their hay and other food. 



The superior value of such leguminous roughages as clover, 

 alfalfa, and cowpea hay with farm animals has in the past been 

 ascribed to their high content of protein. Ingle 3 holds that in 

 such concentrates as linseed oil cake, Indian corn, oats, wheat, and 

 barley, and in such roots and roughages as turnips, swedes, man- 

 gels, corn stover, wheat straw, etc., there is generally an excess of 

 phosphorus over calcium or lime. He holds that this excess of 

 phosphorus tends to waste or carry the lime out of the body to 

 an excessive degree and is therefore unfavorable to normal nutri- 

 tion. The leguminous roughages contain a large excess of lime 

 over phosphorus, and accordingly supplying legumes with the 

 other feeds named makes good such wastage of lime. To this 

 high content of lime as well as to the high protein content we 

 must hereafter ascribe the beneficent effects of clover, alfalfa, 

 vetch, and other leguminous roughages on the growth, milk yield, 

 and bone development of farm animals. 



1 Kellner, Ernahr. landw. Nutztiere, 1907, p. 185. 



* Ztschr. Biol., 16, 1880, p. 70. 



3 Jour, of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, Mar. 1907. 



