1182 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA, 



live, it is necessary that its body must be kept at a temperature 

 of about one hundred degrees. This temperature must be main- 

 tained, if the animal is to live, no matter how cold the weather. 

 The heat necessary is obtained, as we have seen, by the con- 

 sumption of food, and the food used for this purpose can not be 

 used for any other. A man might as well expect to enlarge his 

 house with wood he had to burn to keep it warm as to expect 

 to fatten an ox with food it has to use to keep itself warm. 

 It is evident, therefore, that one way in which the amount of 

 food required as food of support may be reduced .is to protect 

 the animals from exposure to cold. 



When labor of any kind is performed by an animal, food 

 must be burned in the system to develop the needed energy. 

 All the processes of life digestion, assimilation, thought re- 

 quire energy which must be developed from food. Excitement 

 of any kind involves an expenditure of energy, which must be 

 developed from food. Every one knows that the power in an 

 engine comes from the wood or coal that is burned, and that the 

 more energy required the more fuel must be burned. Every 

 engineer knows that any unnecessary friction about his engine 

 (a journal that does not work smoothly), will cause an increase 

 in the amount of coal that must be burned. The animal gets its 

 power from the food, as the engine gets its power from the fuel ; 

 and every increased expenditure of energy, whether physical, 

 mental, vital, or nervous, involves an increased consumption of 

 food for this purpose. It is evident that in order to reduce the 

 amount of food consumed for this purpose that animals being 

 fed for production of meat or milk should be required to make 

 no exertion not absolutely necessary. Cows should not be com- 

 pelled to go far in quest of water, or be compelled to roam over 

 a ten-acre field to gather the food they should be able to get on 

 a quarter-acre. 



We have seen that not only physical energy, but also that 

 by which the vital processes, such as digestion and assimilation, 

 are carried on, is obtained from the food; and we can, there- 

 fore, reduce the amount of food of support by providing food 

 which is easily digested. This fact probably explains some of 



