CHEMISTRY OF FOODS AND FEEDING. 1187 



fall off in their mik as the season advances. This is not merely due 

 to deficiency in the quantity of food, but to its inferior quality. 

 It would take at least one hundred pounds of grass, such as is 

 often found on summer pastures, to furnish the albuminoids 

 contained in twenty-five pounds of milk. To expect a cow to 

 give milk liberally on such a diet is manifestly an absurdity. 



Feeding corn-meal to the cow when the pasture begins to 

 fail will not make up for the deficiency in albuminoids, as corn 

 is itself deficient in this respect. The corn-meal will enable the 

 cow to do letter, as, being a more concentrated food, she will be 

 able to eat a larger quantity, but it will not enable her to do 

 what- she could were her diet properly proportioned. Bran is 

 good for this purpose, as is also clover, and when a cow can be 

 supplied in summer with a pasture of mixed grasses and clover, 

 she is given a diet suited to the end to be attained, and if a lit- 

 tle bran or linseed cake is given in addition the result will be 

 still better. 



In winter a good albuminoid ratio for milk production can 

 be obtained from clover hay, fed in connection with corn-meal, 

 or from meadow hay, straw or corn fodder, fed in connection 

 with bran. Where ensilage is used, red clover, ensilaged when 

 in bloom, fed in connection with corn fodder, either cured 

 or ensilaged, makes a good ration. 



Fattening Animals. Fat, we have seen, can be produced 

 as well from carbohydrates or fats in the food as from albumi- 

 noids, and the diet for a fattening animal, therefore, need con- 

 tain no more albuminoids than is required for the repair of 

 waste and the production of so much lean meat and tissue as 

 must always accompany the production of fat. The diet for 

 this purpose must, therefore, be rich in carbohydrates, and 

 especially in fats. It must also be in a sufficiently concentrated 

 form to enable the animal to take a large enough quantity. 

 As has been before shown in this chapter, it is to the interest 

 of the farmer, when fattening an animal, to get it to eat as 

 much as possible without deranging its digestion. Straw, if fed 

 in connection with a little clover, bran, or oil cake to bring up its 

 albuminoid ratio, would not be a bad diet for fattening could 



