ALBUMINOID RATIO 105 



Generally speaking, a " narrow " albuminoid ratio 

 indicates a food rich in nutrients, a large proportion 

 of which is albuminoids ; while a wide ratio indicates 

 a food low in nutrients. For young or fattening 

 animals a ration with an albuminoid ratio of i to 3, or 

 in some cases I to 5, may be taken as supplying 

 a sufficiency of albuminoids, but for maintenance 

 this ratio may be widened considerably, say, i to 8 or 

 i to 10. 



It is from this point onward that several very 

 interesting practical difficulties have to be overcome. 



Home-grown Poods the Basal part of Ration. 

 Generally speaking, the rotation of crops adopted on 

 arable land supplies the farmer with large quantities 

 of straw and roots. Both these foodstuffs are bulky, 

 and comparatively poor in nutrient constituents. The 

 sale of these crops would involve a large amount of 

 labour, and as their sale value is not high, it is usual 

 to consume crops such as these on the farm by live 

 stock, in order to convert them into a form (beef and 

 mutton) which will be much more easily marketed. 

 Hence the utilisation of these bulky foods in an 

 economical way must be kept in mind in making up 

 a ration. Concentrates are in reality only employed 

 to make up the deficiencies in these bulky foods as 

 required for the particular purpose. 



Ruminants on account of their special power of 

 dealing with bulky foods (more especially fodder 

 crops), consume the major part of the straw and 

 roots on the farm. Horses, however, have fairly con- 

 siderable powers of digesting these bulky fodder crops 

 (see p. 98), but pigs have great difficulty in this 

 direction. 



Further, the bulky and fibrous nature of fodder 



