BREEDING AS AN ART. 5 



" best ; " or, looking more particularly at the activity 

 of the animal machinery, it might be said that the 

 animal that converts the largest amount of food into 

 animal products of the best quality, with the least 

 possible waste of material, would be the most valu- 

 able. 



It is often assumed that animals that eat but little 

 are the most profitable, but this error is evidently 

 founded on mistaken notions of the functions of ani- 

 mal life, and the true place that they occupy in the 

 economy of the farm. A machine that will convert 

 the largest amount of raw material into the desired 

 product, with the least possible wear, and the least 

 expenditure of fuel to furnish the required motive- 

 power, would be more valuable than one that required 

 less fuel, but in which the capacity for efficient work 

 was diminished in a greater ratio. 



The repairs of the animal machine are made at the 

 expense of food consumed, and, if the animal is capa- 

 ble of digesting and assimilating only what is required 

 for this purpose, it would be comparatively worthless, 

 as a profit can only be obtained from the food assimi- 

 lated in excess of this amount. 



In my experiments in feeding swine, the best re- 

 turns for feed consumed were obtained when the ani- 

 mals ate the most in proportion to their live weight, 

 and this is undoubtedly the rule in stock-feeding. 

 This is readily explained by the fact that, when a 

 large amount of food is consumed by an animal, pro- 

 viding it is capable of digesting and assimilating it, 

 the proportion of food required to supply the waste 

 of the tissues and keep the animal machinery in work- 



