I hi: FEEDING OF FARM STOCK 765 



SECTION XII. 



The Feeding of Farm Stock* 



Tin: study of dietetics is only in its infancy in this country, and has not yet 



assumed its true position of importance, hut it will e more and more 



to the front as the country becomes more closely settled. Scientific feeding 

 is economic feeding- with all classes of animals; its neglect here is due to 

 the fact that the vast majority of our stock has been, and still is, entirely 

 paddock fed. This state of affairs is steadily passing away; and with the 

 continued cutting up of large estates, the extension of mixed farming and 

 irrigation, and more intense working of the land, it will become more and 

 more necessary to hand-feed stock of all descriptions, except, of course, in 

 those areas of the State which will for very many years, and probably for 

 all time, remain in large holdings. 



This change of conditions does not only apply to large stock but also to 

 sheep, which, if not hand-fed, will in the future be grazed by methods very 

 different from those at present employed. These methods will approximate 

 more and more to those existing in Europe and will involve greater sub- 

 division of farms, the growth of crops solely to be fed-off by sheep, and the 

 feeding-off of several small paddocks in rotation in place of one or two 

 large ones. 



THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES.* 



The question of the economic feeding of farm animals depends as much 

 on scientific principles as does the economic feeding of farm crops. 



Farmers all the world over have come to realise that in order to apply 

 manure without waste, it is necessary to apply it with some regard to the 

 nature of the crop and to the nature of the soil. It is safe to say that when 

 the farmer nowadays applies farmyard manure the object of supplying 

 plant-food is only a secondary consideration. It is added to improve the 

 nature of the soil, to supply vegetable matter, to loosen the texture and so 

 forth; but if the farmer wishes to supply plant-food, he does so with a less 

 bulky and more rapid acting, and consequently more economical fertiliser. 

 The indiscriminate use of manures like guanos and bonedust has given way 

 to a more careful selection of the kinds of fertilisers suitable to the require- 

 ments of different crops, and a consideration of the readiness with which 

 the various ingredients are availed of by the plant. 



In the same way the feeding of farm animals is quietly undergoing a 

 revolution, and it behoves the farmer who does not wish to see himself at a 

 disadvantage to learn something concerning the nature of the substances 

 which comprise the food of his stock, and of the idiosyncrasies of the 

 individual animals. 



For animals, just as much as plants, require certain definite ingredients in 

 their food, and require these to be present in definite proportions. There is, 

 however, this difference, that with plants the supply of a large amount 

 of unnecessary food simply means a waste of money, but in the case of 



* F. B. Guthrie. 



