112 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GEORGIA. [398] 



table combination of 'flesh-forming, fat-producing, and 

 blood and bone-supplying constituents, such as the cereals, 

 grasses and legumes, by ^a judicious combination of which 

 food adapted to all animals, of whatever age and condi 

 tion, can be secured. 



Again, animals require food containing a larger propor- 

 tion of carbo-hydrates intwinter than in summer. By ex- 

 amining the foregoing tables, it will be seen that hay and 

 the grains, which are consumed in winter, contain a higher 

 per cent, of the carbo-hydrates than the green food which 

 is consumed during summer. 



After elaborate experiments in feeding domestic animals, 

 conducted in Germany, it^'was decided that the best ratio 

 for general purposes, .between the albuminoids and carbo- 

 hydrates is as 1 to 3. 



While this ratio exists in only a few single substances, 

 it may be secured by a proper mixture of substances hav- 

 ing these proximate principles in different ratios. The 

 practice of many of our farmers who feed corn and fod- 

 der throughout the year, regardless of the temperature, is 

 unwise. Corn probably has no superior as winter food 

 for stock, but is too heating for an exclusive summer diet. 



Oats make a better summer food than corn, since its 

 flesh-forming principles bear a larger proportion to its fat 

 and heat-producing principles 'than they do in corn. The 

 green grasses, however, furnish the natural food for ani- 

 mals in summer. Mixed grasses supply the albuminoids 

 and carbo-hydrates in better ratio than single ones, espe- 

 cially when the legumes are mixed with the grasses. 



Animals, unconfined, never feed upon a single article, 

 but upon the mixed herbage, which, varying in the^propor- 

 tions of fat and flesh-forming princples, furnish them 

 the means of supplying all their wants. An animal 

 turned into a field in which clover, peas, and corn are 

 growing, will not confine itself to either, but partake of all. 



Man does not confine his diet to farinacious nor carbona- 



