Introduction 



Scientific feeding may be defined as the conversion of elementary- 

 feeding stuffs into animal product or performance. Since domestic ani- 

 mals are not kept for their own sake, but for the profit of their owners, 

 they must be kept and fed upon a purely economic basis. With due at- 

 tention to the question of health, our every effort should be directed to 

 maximum production at minimum expense. The cost of feed alone 

 represents a very considerable item in the expense of growing or keep- 

 ing an animal. Important economies may be practiced in the selection 

 of feeding stuffs by substituting the less expensive for higher priced 

 material of the same feeding value. In connection with the problem of 

 feeding for production or gain, that of maintenance during certain un- 

 productive intervals, as, for example, dry milk cows, or work horses in 

 the idle season, is of equal importance. 



The actual cost of the feed which enters into production expense will 

 be discussed more in detail in the sections on the money value of feeding 

 stufifs and the testing of feed-utilization. In passing it may be remarked, 

 however, that the cost of production very frequently is altogether out of 

 proportion to the actual gain secured, whether this be due to the presence 

 of so-called passive animals or to the selection of unnecessarily high- 

 priced feeding stuffs when equally good material at a lower market price 

 might have been available. Thus the use of comparatively high-priced 

 oats for horses, high-priced bran for milk cows and high priced barley for 

 swine is not economical when cheaper feeding stuffs, such as potatoes, 

 dry yeast, oil cake, etc., of equal feeding value, can be obtained and sub- 

 stituted. The Paris Omnibus Company with its 12,000 horses in this 

 manner reduced the feeding expense of its horses by nearly 20 per cent. 

 The animals thrived under the new conditions and continued to perform 

 satisfactorily. In this respect the late war taught us many valuable 

 lessons. 



In feeding for profit not only the market value of the feed but, in no 

 less degree, the resulting animal product and service must be taken into 

 consideration. 



Feeding must be conducted upon an individual basis. Fattening a 

 draft horse is just as injudicious as starving a milk cow at the expense 

 of reduced milk secretion. 



In most agricultural and industrial establishments rational feeding has 

 not yet received the attention which, in the present depressed economic 

 conditions, is demanded more than ever before. Modem feeding technic 

 can be the means of adding enormously to the national wealth. To ac- 

 complish this end we must use more arithmetic. Our farmers should be 



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