574 IIANDY-BOOK OP HUSBANDRY. 



containing more nitrogen and phosphates, will his bones grow 

 large and his muscles more full. If fed largely upon pea and bean 

 meal, his growth will be much accelerated and his vigor increased. 

 Oats, which are very strongly nutritious, accomplish the same 

 effect to a less degree, while owing to the bulkiness of the woody 

 fiber of the husk, their effect on the digestive organs is better, 

 though of course no grain should be used as the exclusive food of 

 any animal. All such nutritious forage should be accompanied 

 with enough hay or straw to form bulk, and keep the digestive 

 organs sufficiently distended. Indian corn, which contains a 

 large amount of oil and starch, (fattening materials,) is not nearly 

 so well adapted as oats, peas, and beans to the needs of growing 

 animals. 



2. Fattening stock has the least amount of waste of bone and 

 muscle to make up, since it takes but little exercise and does no 

 work. Our sole object is to keep the animal in a state of robust 

 health, so that it consume and properly digest a large amount of 

 food, and at the same time store up, in the adipose tissue, a large 

 proportion of fat. Such animals should receive sufficient hay or 

 straw for the proper distention of the intestines, and as much fat- 

 forming food as they are capable of thoroughly digesting. With 

 such animals roots may be largely fed, the quantity of coarse 

 fodder being proportionately reduced, and Indian corn meal 

 or oil meal, may be largely used with advantage. 



3. With milking cows, one object should be to reduce the 

 amount of exercise to the least that will keep them in a state of 

 health ; to avoid all accumulation of fat, and to stimulate to the 

 utmost the secretion of milk. This is best accomplished by the 

 use of rich and well-cured hay, roots, and bran. 



4. Working animals are constantly wearing out their bones and 

 muscles, while their vigorous exercise causes them to consume 

 more of their food in respiration than do animals in a state of rest. 

 Their requirements approximate to those of growing young stock, 

 the chief difference being, that instead of supplying material to be 

 accumulated in the bones and muscles, we supply the waste that 

 these have undergone in the performance of labor. 



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