94 The Feeding of Animals 



entirely unlike, and what is true in this respect of the 

 steer and the maize is true of all other animals and 

 plants. The dry matter of the vegetable world con- 

 sists most largely of fiber, starch and other carbohy- 

 drates, while animal tissues contain these compounds 

 in so small a proportion as to be inappreciable in stat- 

 ing the percentage composition. In the average animal 

 dry matter, as it appears in the market, the fats are 

 the leading constituents, and the proportion of protein 

 is more than twice, perhaps three times, that in average 

 vegetable tissue. 



In considering the composition of farm animals, 

 .we may first divide the body substances into water and 

 dry matter. The dry matter, aside from the contents 

 of the stomach and intestines, and the food ingredients 

 in the way to being used, essentially belongs to three 

 classes of compounds, ash, protein, and fats, which, as 

 is the case with water, are present in greatly varying 

 proportions in different species, and even in the same 

 species according as the animal is j^oung or old, lean or 

 fat. Our knowledge on this subject is largely derived 

 from the investigations of Lawes and Gilbert, at Roth- 

 amsted, England. These investigators carried through 

 the great effort of analyzing the entire bodies of ten 

 animals representing two species at different ages, and 

 three species in different conditions of fatness. At the 

 Maine Experiment Station in this country, the bodies' 

 of four steers were analyzed, exclusive of the skin, two 

 steers being younger and not so fat as the other two. 

 From these data a very fair knowledge may be obtained 

 not only of the composition of the bodies of bovines 



