[399] SCIENTIFIC MANUAL. 113 



clous substances, such as fine bread, potatoes, sugar, fats, 

 etc., but mingles with them lean meats and vegetables, to 

 secure a proper combination of fat and flesh producers. 



The athlete, while preparing for feats of strength and 

 activity, subsists mainly upon food rich in albuminoids, 

 in order to develop, as much as possible, muscu- 

 lar tissue. The judicious stock-breeder will acquaint him- 

 self with the composition of the different kinds of food at 

 his command, and select such as, either alone or by com- 

 binat'on with others, will supply his animals with such food 

 constituents as will produce the desired results. 



The food will vary with the objects in view. If the ob- 

 ject of the breeder is to produce fat, then the food should 

 contain carbo-hydrates in large proportions. If very poor 

 animals, in which the muscular tissue has been wasted, are 

 to be fed, the ratio between the albuminoids and carbo-hy- 

 drates should be as 1 to 3, until a normal condition of flesh 

 is restored, when the ratio of carbo-hydrates may be in- 

 creased. If the production of milk is the object, the nor- 

 mal ratio of 1 to 3, or, perhaps, 1 to 4, in winter, will give 

 satisfactory results. If young growing animals are fed, 

 the normal ratio of 1 to 3, with a liberal per centage of 

 phosphate, for the production of bone, will be desirable. 



Animals derive all of their food, either directly or indi- 

 rectly, from vegetation. 



Vegetation is supported from the soil and the atmos- 

 phere. All the albuminoids, and most of the carbo-hy- 

 drates, came originally from the atmosphere, but are sup- 

 ported largely through the medium of the soil. Animals 

 consume plants, and are in turn consumed by them. 

 Plants derive their albuminoid compounds from decayed 

 animal or vegetable matter. Plants take carbon from the 

 air, and return oxygen to it. Animals take oxygen and 

 return carbon. So plants and animals bear a reciprocal re- 

 lation to each other. 

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