346 NUTRITION OF FARM ANIMALS 



tinctly smaller amounts, viz., 0.090 Ib. of calcium and 0.021 Ib. 

 of phosphorus proved adequate for maintenance. Weiske l found 

 that a mature sheep gained small amounts of ash ingredients 

 on a ration of meadow hay containing, per 1600 pounds live 

 weight, 0.179 Ib. calcium and 0.045 Ib. phosphorus. 



436. Correction of ash deficiencies. As regards main- 

 tenance, it seems clear that the ash requirement is a qualitative 

 rather than a quantitative one; i.e., that it is the proportions 

 far more than the total amounts of ash ingredients that are 

 important. If, then, there is reason to fear that the ash supply 

 in the ration is inadequate for maintenance, any measures 

 taken to remedy this must be directed chiefly toward the cor- 

 rection of the misproportion between different ingredients and 

 only secondarily to an increase of their total quantity. 



One method of effecting such a correction is by the direct 

 addition of mineral matter. In attempting to correct de- 

 ficiencies in this way, however, the simple addition of more ash 

 material to the ration may not be effective. It is necessary 

 also to take into account the nature of the defects to be made 

 good. Maize, for example, has already been instanced (430) 

 as a feeding stuff peculiarly low in ash, the exclusive use of 

 which, even for maintenance, might readily lead to a loss of 

 ash from the body. Maize is especially deficient in calcium and 

 its exclusive use would be liable to cause a loss of this element. 

 The attempt to supply additional calcium, however, by the 

 addition of such materials as calcium phosphate or sulphate 

 would not help the situation materially because the ash would 

 still remain acid and thus capable of causing a loss of fixed 

 bases irrespective of the additional amount of calcium present. 

 On the other hand the addition of calcium in the form of car- 

 bonate, by the use of precipitated chalk or wood ashes, not 

 only supplies additional calcium but remedies the acid con- 

 dition which leads to a loss of that element, as has been well 

 demonstrated in the numerous experiments on growing swine 

 referred to in Chapter XI (496). The correction of the ash 

 composition of hays causing malnutrition of the bones, like 

 those instanced by Zuntz (433), presents quite different re- 

 quirements. The very injurious Brandenburg hay, e.g., con- 

 tained the following percentages of ash ingredients : 



1 Landw. Jahrb., 9 (1880), 290. 



