FEED OF THE DAIRY COW 77 



FAT AND CARBOHYDRATES 



These are so similar in their uses that in modern 

 feeding tables they are classed together. They serve 

 three purposes. First, they are consumed in the 

 body to furnish animal heat. Second, their con- 

 sumption furnishes motive force, energy, as coal 

 burned under the locomotive boiler furnishes power. 

 Third, the excess not consumed for the other pur- 

 poses is deposited as fat in the body. An animal 

 may be fed with an oversupply of carbohydrates in 

 the shape of corn, and an undersupply of protein, 

 and while laying on fat actually starve for want of 

 material to make blood, nerve, and muscle. An in- 

 stance which came under the writer's observation 

 illustrates this. A farmer, having nothing for his 

 team to do during the winter, kept them in the barn, 

 feeding them on a poor quality of timothy hay, some 

 oat straw, and a liberal supply of corn-meal. In 

 early spring they appeared to be in fine condition, 

 but when he hitched them up they soon became ex- 

 hausted, and he was unable to get one of them 

 home. In calling a veterinarian it was discovered 

 that the muscle, flesh, and blood of the horses had 

 been so impoverished as to produce the same re- 

 sult as actual starvation. On a balanced ration they 

 soon recovered. 



The feed value of fat is two and a half times 

 that of carbohydrates. Skim-milk can be fed to milk 

 cows to advantage. The place of twenty pounds 

 of average mixed ground feeds can be taken by one 

 hundred pounds of milk. It is worth twenty cents 

 a hundredweight. The following table may be 

 found of assistance in producing a balanced ration; 



