x.J SUPPLEMENTAL POOD. 93 



equal to 14 Ibs. increase in live weight, or 9 Ibs. of 

 mutton. 



196. We thus see that food has two drawbacks in 

 its conversion into meat. It has to pay a life-tax for 

 maintaining the animal in a healthy condition, and it 

 has also to construct out of the food the machinery 

 necessary for the conversion of the residue into meat. 

 But whilst we fully recognize these unavoidable duties, 

 they distinctly indicate the economy of making a full 

 use of the advantages thus purchased. To keep an 

 animal intended for the production of meat, in such a 

 manner that it makes no progress, is practically 

 paying for a privilege which you do not make use of. 

 If, on the other hand, having paid out of the food 

 these necessary demands, care be also taken to give 

 the animal such food as shall promote rapid produc- 

 tion of meat, you then take advantage of the oppor- 

 tunity you have purchased. 



197. From the same point of view we may also 

 more fully realize the value of artificial food, such as 

 linseed cake, corn, &c., in acting in a supplemental 

 capacity. For instance, assuming an animal feeding 

 upon grass or roots to be receiving therefrom just 

 sufficient food to keep it from losing weight, the 

 daily demand of the body will have been thereby 

 satisfied. If such an animal received some additional 

 food, it would be able to turn that supplemental 

 food into a marketable form, with much less 

 loss of useful material. In the one case the 

 toll is paid for an empty cart; in the other case 

 we pass a profitable load. But if a given quantity of 

 good food were supplied to an animal at a rate not 

 equal to the waste of the body, then we not only 

 do not get any increase of live weight for the food 

 used, but the animal loses weight. In fact, it makes 

 up the deficiency in the supply by feeding upon itself, 

 and if the treatment were continued long enough, the 

 animal would starve for want of a sufficiency of 



