CHAPTER XIV 

 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



Importance of animal feeding. 



Functions of feed. 



Balanced rations. 



Kinds of feeds. 



Palatability of feed. 



Effect of feed on the digestion. 



Cost of feed. 



Suiting the feed to the animal. 



Digestibility of feed. 



WE have learned that we cannot expect good crops unless 

 we provide the plants the proper kinds and quantities of food 

 materials. Similarly we cannot hope to have the best domestic 

 animals, or to secure the heaviest yields from them, unless we 

 learn how to feed them. The feeding of animals has now 

 come to be a complex subject, due to the greater knowledge 

 we have secured, the attempt to use many new kinds of feed, 

 and the necessity of obtaining surer results. The principles 

 of feeding are not difficult to understand, however, and we are 

 now about to discuss them and to learn how to make some of 

 the applications to practice. 



155. Importance of animal feeding. The feeding of farm 

 animals is an important part of animal husbandry. Many 

 feeders who know only the art of feeding are successful, but 

 when a man is found who knows both the art and the science 

 of the work, he usually is doubly successful. The principles 

 on which the feeding of farm animals is based deal with such 

 factors as the composition of the various feed stuffs, the diges- 

 tion and absorption of the feed, the quantity and kind of feed 



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