CHAPTER XXI. 



FEEDING 

 ANIMALS 

 (FOOD) 



USE OF A 



RATION 



WESTERN ANIMAL FEEDING. 



Do not try to keep more animals than you can feed 

 well. Signs of Spring-time starvation are unsightly and 

 unprofitable. Poor animals do not bring forth good off- 

 spring: they do poor work: they are not good meat. 



Food is the basis of life. As we put coal 

 under a boiler to produce heat, which may be 

 changed into other forms of energy, as motion, 

 electricity, or light, through the agency of 

 steam, so we put food into our bodies for the 

 purpose of creating energy through the agency 

 of our life force. Perhaps we will never know 

 just how food is converted into energy in the ani- 

 mal body, but we do know that it is changed and 

 gives back heat, work and energy in various 

 forms, and that the surplus may be stored up in 

 the body tissues for future use. 



A ration is a certain combination of foods, 

 given in proper amounts to keep the animal and 

 produce some desired result. We supply food 

 to farm animals for the purpose of producing 

 work, which is manifested in all the life pro- 

 cesses, and is given back to us in flesh, fat, or 

 the work of the animals themselves. It takes a 

 large amount of energy to keep the animal alive 

 and to perform its various functions. For ex- 

 ample, it has been determined that 11 per cent. 



